To Tomorrow
by Fandoms of the Opera
Summary: Losing a loved one can be hard…but with every new tomorrow there's an even bigger adventure!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own FNAF. **

"Saturday again…" Bonnie sighed, his arms creaking as he set them behind his head.

"Yep." Freddie straightened his bowtie. "No one's spying on us through the little cameras in the ceilings. We're free to do whatever we please."

"Well…not quite…" Chica took off her bib and glowered at it. "We still can't eat all of the food…then the owners will get suspicious and there'll be even more security."

"When are we going to eat? It's past dinner time." Bonnie growled.

"Just as soon as the pizza's ready." Chica looked at the vividly colored clock on the wall. "Should be about five minutes."

"Can't you speed it up? I'm starving!"

"Yes, well there's someone ELSE who's starving too. Really starving…" Freddie and the others turned their heads sympathetically in the direction of Pirate Cove. Silence passed between them. They shivered in their metal as a low, grieving moan echoed around the walls of the building.

"Poor Foxy…" Chia blinked. "She really was a nice security guard…it's just…"

"Most people don't exactly…enjoy this job." Bonnie rubbed the back of his fuzzy head.

"Do you think he'll ever be his normal self again?" She asked as another groan shuddered the windows.

"Depends. Do you think she'll ever come back again?" Freddie asked with a sympathetic blink.

"He's got to get over it." Bonnie snorted. "Plenty of night guards come and go all the time, and it's not like one- especially one like Melanie- would stay here just because some of us like her more than the other guards."

"Bon, it's not that easy." Chica told him. "We've been alone for so long…when Melanie came around it was like she…understood…" Her eyes trailed to Pirate Cove again and she forced her bolted mouth into a smile. "Maybe we should go and talk to him… to cheer him up?"

"Count me out." Freddie let out a scratchy, rough chuckle. "Foxy's a good friend of mine but… I think he wants to be left alone for now."

"He's been alone for a few months." Bonnie twitched a purple ear.

"He doesn't want to be alone. He wants Melanie." Chica said, then honestly added in a meeker voice "We all do…"

"That new guard doesn't know what he's doing." Bonnie's metal arms squealed as he crossed them. "What did his name tag say? Tim?"

"I thought it was Tom." Chica looked up at the ceiling and squinted to remember.

"Could've sworn it was Tanner…." Freddie tapped his chin with a fuzzy paw.

Another moan turned their attention yet again towards the dark hallway. They winced at the heartache in their friend's voice.

"Whoever he is he's no replacement for Melanie." Chica sniffed. A promising ding was heard from the kitchen and Chia turned towards it. "I'll get the pizza and set the table. Freddie, will you get the refreshments?" she headed off to the kitchen and paused. "Oh, Bonnie, will you send for Foxy? I'd like to have a dinner with the whole family for once."

Sighing to himself, Bonnie slid off the edge of the stage and clanked down the hallway towards Pirate Cove. The hallway became darker and darker and the atmosphere became bleaker and drearier as Bonnie continued. A spider darted into the shadows before his foot could come down and squash it mercilessly. Webs hung on the ceiling like signs warning him to stay away. Bonnie peeked cautiously around the edge of the wall and peered at the dimly lit room. He could see Foxy's reddish brown back facing him through a chink in the torn, old, dusty curtains held together by strings. Grumbling inwardly, Bonnie raised his paw and knocked. Foxy's ears twitched.

"Foxy, listen." Bonnie started, not wanting to carry on a deep conversation. He could already feel the awkward tension crawling through his fur. "Chica really wants to have dinner with the family. She-" He gritted his teeth. "We all miss you."

There was a pause in which an uncomfortable silence swamped over Bonnie.

"And I miss Melanie…" Came the distant, despairing reply.

"Okay Foxy, I get it. You really liked her. But throwing yourself a pity party isn't going to make her come back. She came, she worked, she left. It happens. Now are you going to come to dinner or are you going to sit here and sulk lazily like you do every day?"

A wrench whizzed towards Bonnie's head and made his skull ring. He glowered at his one-eyed friend, biting back a harsh retort. He balled his paws and turned on his thick heel, marching hotly out of Pirate Cove.

Chica's bolts curled up when she saw him coming but fell almost instantly as she saw his stormy expression. "I take it he's not coming?" She murmured with a sigh, setting a plate of tempting, steamy hot pizza on the table in which they usually sat. Freddie, sitting next to the chair at the head of the table, patiently eyed the food with a smile.

"He's got plenty of cake and soda at 'Pity Party Cove'." Bonnie snarled, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Chica sighed again. "Well…I guess three will work…again…" She plopped herself into a seat across from Freddie and Bonnie took his usual seat next to her. They all glanced at the empty seat at the head of the table where Foxy would once sit. Ever since their first day at Freddie Fazbear's Pizzeria, Foxy would have everyone stand and announce the 'light in their life'. It was something he came up with to boost everyone's spirits and to keep them from giving up on life. But the strong and cheerful fox wasn't here now.

"I guess I'll go first." Chica took a deep breath and stood up with a smile. "The light in my life is knowing that we hold a special place in each child's heart. It makes me happy to see the joy in their faces." She sat down and nodded to Freddie. He stood up and straightened his bowtie.

"The light in my life is the plentiful food and housing we are given. This isn't luxury, but it's better than a cold warehouse." The wise bear sat down and all four eyes turned to Bonnie. He stood up and spoke gruffly.

"The light in my life is that we don't have to pay rent or bills. Because we don't get paid. And that sucks."

"In the hopes of a happy tomorrow, bottoms up." Freddie said as they all lifted their red plastic cups to touch.

Foxy stared at the three from the hole in his closed curtain. They didn't understand what he was going through, no one did. Yeah, sure, night guards come and go, but Melanie was different. She understood him, more than anyone else did. Not even Bonnie knows what he was going through, and Bonnie was Foxy's best friend. Sure they said they did, but they didn't.

This was blind to Foxy, but he was pushing his best friend away. Bonnie had always been there for him, when Freddy would say stuff behind his back, Bonnie made a hasty comment toward Freddy. They were brothers. Though, that was before Melanie came along.

Foxy didn't know what happened, but when he first saw the woman, his inside whirled. His exoskeleton couldn't withhold his expression of shock as he stared at the open metal door. Of course she was afraid, there was a Pirate Fox with a hook about to attack her. Why wouldn't she be scared. As if it was only a second, the metal door slammed shut. A little disappointed, Foxy walked away from the door, back to Pirate Cove. He sat behind his curtains and thought about her. A happy sigh escaped his metal mouth.

The next night didn't go as expected. Like always, Foxy expected the door to be slammed on his face. As the trembling night guard aimlessly watched the cameras, his thoughts stirred.

Before the other three were active (which was usually around 2 AM, he sneaked out of his Cove and down the hallway. He peaked through the window, and there she was. She watched the security cameras, clicking through them. She watched the three characters on her screen as if they would jump right through her hand held device. However, as she moved to the next camera, Foxy watched her as her expression turned from scared to worry then to calm…until her eyes landed on the Pirate Cove camera, Foxy was smart enough to close the curtain before leaving. She would think he was still in there.

"Hmm. The fox doesn't seem active…yet…" She kept scrolling through the cameras, her bright eyes glittering as they reflected the electronic light.

When she came to the main camera, displaying Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, she saw that Bonnie was gone. The night guard's calm expression fell as she switched to the hallway camera. It wasn't clear, but she could see that large outline of Bonnie.

Bonnie, seeing Foxy standing on his knees and looking through the window at the night guard, tipped his head.

"Foxy?" Bonnie hissed.

Foxy's head whipped over to his friend. Bonnie gave him an obvious shrug and briskly walked over. Foxy hauled him down out of the night guard's view. "What in the world are you doing?"

"Wathcing the new guard." Foxy said, his eyes smiling. "She's really cute."

"She?" Bonnie asked, sitting on his knees and looking through the grimy window.

They watched as she curiously glued her gaze to the cameras.

"That's weird, where did he go…?" She asked herself as she scrolled through the cameras fast. "Where is he? Where is he? Come on out, rabbit. Where did you go?"

"Hey!" Bonnie whisper-yelled. "I'm a bunny." He regally gestured to himself.

"Shush!" Foxy hissed.

"This is ridiculous. Why are we doing this?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't know. 'Cause I'm really wondering about this girl." Foxy said, slumping down and staring at the wall.

"Oh no, no, no, no. Where's the duck?" They heard the girl ask herself.

"Chicken." Bonnie corrected silently.

"Shush." Foxy muttered again, earning an eye-roll from Bonnie.

The girl switched the hallway lights on. The two animatronics peered up as the lights flickered for a moment and then shut off in their hallway. They saw Chica through the other window. The girl jumped and gasped, quickly closing the door to Chica's hallway and shutting off the light.

Chica saw her partners through the other window and gave them a questioning look. Bonnie rolled his eyes at her and mouthed 'I'll tell you later'. Nodding and mouthing an 'Ohhh', Chica walked away, back to the main party room. Foxy let out a sigh as he stood and clenched his paw with determination.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked, looking up.

"I'm gonna talk to her."

"Yeah. Right. You gonna talk to her, or the door?" Bonnie snorted.

Foxy laughed dryly. "So. Fun-ny."

The girl checked the light in the hallway where she'd last seen Chica and found that the chicken was gone. She opened the door and gave a little sigh of relief, not noticing Foxy slipping in through the open door frame.

"Hi." Foxy said, plainly. He felt that this was a natural introduction, nothing to freakishly weird, no pick up lines or anything. Humans did this to each other all the time, so this shouldn't be frightening, right?

Wrong.

Upon seeing him, the night guard let out a blood curdling scream, which Foxy was sure Freddy had heard and probably was going to give him an earful for.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." Foxy cooed, raising his paw and his hook to try and calm her down.

"Y-you're not?" She asked, he could see tears in the corners of her shinning eyes.

"No… I just wanted to say hello." Foxy smiled. She smiled back faintly, but it dropped suddenly. Foxy turned and saw Bonnie in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hi." She murmured in a small, shaky voice.

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Foxy said. "We're not gonna hurt you."

She let out a sigh. "That's a big relief." Slouching in her chair, she watched the camera. Freddy still stood on the stage, arms folded and scowling as he heard the conversation down the hall.

"So you were trying to say hello yesterday?" She asked Foxy.

"Well sort of…" He scratched his head with his hook. "I didn't know you were here until I saw you. Then I guess I just wanted to say hi." Foxy said, holding out his metal paw. "My name's Foxy."

She grabbed his paw in her small, soft hand. "Melanie." She looked over and the bunny and offered her hand to him, smiling. He took it and shook it."

"I'm Bonnie, and before you ask, yes I'm a guy with the name Bonnie. And I'm a bunny not a rabbit."

Melanie's tears had dried up, and now she was smiling. "It's nice to meet y'all, and it's nice to know y'all won't kill me." Foxy couldn't stop the smile that grew on his face as he heard her country accent.

"I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." Melanie said.

The next nights went amazing. After introducing Chica and Freddy, they all befriended the sweet night guard. On the fourth night, they all gathered around a table and enjoyed pizza and soda. They each told stories of their past and laughed.

And in those few days, Foxy was sure he was in love. Though, that all changed. Of course everyone must move on with life. Melanie had gotten a better job, and had to quit working at the pizza place, which made the fifth night of her job difficult.

After sharing the bad news of her departure, everyone sat at the table. No one had touched their pizza. Foxy took this news hard. After only knowing her five nights, he wasn't ready to let her go.

At 6 AM, everyone went back to their places of rest, and Melanie left. Never to be seen again.

Months had past and no one ever saw Melanie. She had promised to stop by, but never did. Foxy let out a sigh and opened the curtain to his cove. His exoskeleton creaked faintly as he stood and walked down the hall to where his friends sat.

Upon seeing him, the others all stopped and fell silent. He poured himself a cup of soda, and put his hand of Bonnie's shoulder, giving his friend an apologetic smile.

"The light of my day…is to know that there is a brighter day tomorrow." Foxy said. He lifted his red plastic cup. "To tomorrow."

"To tomorrow." All four of them said together.

**Author's Note: Heeyy Heeey HEEEEEYYY Alright for those of you who know, this is 'To Tomorrow' a FNAF fan fiction. I'm posting chapter one AND chapter two because Chapter 1 was posted on wolfpurpledinosaur's page (check her out!). I thank her greatly for helping me get started in the world of fan fiction. Critiques and comments are greatly appreciated. I'll probably be updating this story once a week on Saturdays/ Sundays so yeah! I don't own Five Nights at Freddy's I just see game and friends say "YOU WRITE FAN FICTION" and so I do**.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alright everybody." Freddy clapped his paws together in the morning light that filtered through the windows of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. "It's Sunday. You know what that means- clean up day. Let's make it as clean as four animatronics possibly can for the rest of the week. You know those little kids…"

"Throwing cake…" Chica looked over towards the wall where a little girl had thrown slices of her birthday cake because it wasn't her favorite flavor.

Bonnie nodded. "That was scary." He let out a chuckle.

"What happened? I don't think I was walkin 'round with some kids with Freddy at that time." Foxy rubbed his furry head in confusion.

Chica and Bonnie exchanged a laugh.

"WE'RE GETTING OFF TASK!" Freddy butted in, waving his arms to stop their conversation. "Remember, this is a family restaurant. We don't want anyone to get sick. Now I know that us as the animatronics aren't exactly the ones to blame for messes and spills and things like that, but we still do our best to keep the children…moderately germ free."

Bonnie snorted with a laugh. "Moderately."

"Just clean the restaurant…" A paw slammed against Freddy's face.

"I'll get the kitchen." Chica shrugged and bustled off.

"I s'pose I could get this room here, and the stage, and my own room." Foxy said, looking around.

"I'll get the closets and the halls." Freddy nodded.

"I guess I'll get everything else…" Bonnie growled with a huff.

"Alright then, let's get to work." Freddy lead them to the supply closet and dished out all of the cleaning supplies. They were running low on a few things and Bonnie made a mental note to bring this up to Chica later on.

With a spray bottle in his hand, Bonnie made his way towards the entrance to the restaurant. As he neared the pool of sunlight filtering in through the door, worry crawled up his endoskeleton. Why did it have to be GLASS doors? He thought. He strained to see if there was anybody in the parking lot and let out a relieved sigh as he saw nothing.

He sprayed the cleanser on the glass and scrubbed the windows. After about five minutes of being a temporary window-washer, Bonnie saw a sleek, silver blur sped into the driveway. He nearly dropped his spray bottle in surprise. The blur jerked to a halt and Bonnie squinted as he noticed it was a car. A blonde woman, looking a bit unnerved exited the driver's side and marched around to the back seat, yanking out a little boy who was staring at the restaurant in wonder. Before Bonnie knew what was happening, the woman started marching in his direction, dragging the boy with her. By now they'd surely see him in the window. He locked up, pasted a smile on his face, and went into character mode.

"See, Billy? They're closed today. Just like I said. We can't go in." The woman growled.

"Why are they closed today?" The boy sniffed.

"It's their policy, kiddo."

"Mama, look! It's Bonnie!" The boy broke free of the woman's grip and rushed up to the glass. "Wow! He looks cool!"

"Why in the world is it right in front of the entrance?" The woman muttered, frowning.

"Hi there! It's your buddy, Bonnie!" Bonnie greeted.

"Hi Bonnie! I'm going to come here tomorrow with my friend Josh!" the boy said, his eyes shining.

"Have a good day!"

Looking a bit unnerved, the woman began dragging the boy away from the restaurant. She muttered under her breath. "The place is crawling with germs anyways…"

"That's why I'm a-cleanin the windows!" Bonnie couldn't stop the words from slipping through his mechanically gritted teeth.

The woman threw a wide-eyed glance in the bunny's direction and quickened her pace. When she was out of sight, Bonnie dropped the act. This place wasn't as filthy as she might've heard. At his side, a small, slender, pale figure appeared.

Bonnie gave a sad smile. "Hello there, Jess."

"Hi Bonnie." The ghost of the little girl smiled. She wore a short white dress and a matching bow, like her friend Laura. "Do you want help cleaning?"

"No, kiddo. You go on back and play with the others." He patted her head, smiling.

"I can't. Jim, Chris, and Paul won't let me in the ball pit! Girls aren't allowed in there." She folded her arms and huffed.

"What about Laura?" Bonnie asked, picking up the sopping rag and wringing it out over the bubbly water.

"She went to ask Chica a question."

From the back of the store there came a loud clattering crash followed by a long, agonized, gurgling shriek. It rang and rang, a horrible, choking, scream that died slowly and in a tormented way. Eyes wide, Jess clung to Bonnie, who locked up as the dead cry still echoed through the halls and resonated in his gears.

The hurried whir and thud of an animatronic's footsteps grew and grew until Chica's shape came rushing into view. She ran up to Bonnie with wide eyes.

"Come quick!" She squeaked. "It's him!"

Kids crowded around the stage as Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy prepared to sing their age old classic song. Behind the group, a row of mothers and a few awkward dads were standing, keeping a close eye on their children. Chica let out a small sigh. _You're safe now_. She thought to herself, wishing she could explain. Children aren't in danger here anymore.

"Ready everyone?" Freddy tossed a glace to his left and his right before picking up his microphone and raising his head, a broad smile on his furry face.

At Chica and Bonnie's nod, he took a step forward.

"Welcome one and all to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria!"

The children's faces grew with wonder and amazement, their eyes sparkled and they gaped as their idols came to life.

As the song began and the restaurant came into its regular daily bustle, Foxy came out of his hiding hole to greet all of the guests and kids. At once, several children clustered around him.

"Ahoy there!" He grinned, swinging his hook in a pirate fashion.

The children giggled and greeted him.

As he told pirate-y jokes and played his part, a little girl with dark brown hair and a toy costume eye-patch shyly raised her hand.

"What's on your mind, lass?" Foxy asked, kneeling in front of her. A little chubby armed boy launched himself onto Foxy's back and pulled at his soft ears. Used to the attacks of roughhousing children, the fox ignored it.

The little girl pointed shyly to his hook. "What happened to your hand?"

At this, Foxy drew a blank. His paw. What happened to it? Nothing. He always had a hook- that's how his creator made him. But he wasn't supposed to be an animatronic to the children, he was a pirate, and pirates always had swash-buckling tales of dangerous sword fights and exciting adventures on the sea.

"Well now…" He started. "You see I was out…fighting…a…a great white shark. Aye, that's it! I was out on the sea on a dark and stormy night when a giant shark came up and threatened to turn my ship over! So I grabbed me' saber and-

"Chopped his head clean off!" Cried the ear-pulling boy, now with his arms locked around Foxy's through like a big chubby boa constrictor.

"Aye, but not before he could take a bite of me paw!" Foxy barked, raising his hook.

"Why didn't you get a fake hand?" Another boy asked. "My papa has a fake foot. He lost his real one in a war."

"My momma went to war." A little said. She took off a locket around her neck and opened it, showing a photo of a casket with a framed photo of a young woman atop it. "That's her, there."

Foxy swallowed. "Aye, it looks like they be servin' lunch now!" He quickly changed the subject. The kids, spying an employee and catching the scent of fresh pizza, gravitated away from Foxy and towards their tables.

The front door opened and a familiar face walked into the building. The four animatronics saw him all at once.

"Mike." Growled Freddy.

"Mike." Bonnie wrinkled his nose.

"Mike." Chica hissed.

"Mike." Foxy glared.

"Howdy, Mike!" Macy, a short-haired female employee smiled. "What brings you here today? I thought you worked the night shift."

Giving that signature smug-lazy-Mike smile, he tapped his badge proudly. "Just thought I'd see what things were like in the sunshine, that's all." The animatronics on stage ended their song as food was served and delicately put away their music equipment. Disappointed scowls on their faces, they all clustered together by the stage like marching band coaches reviewing their band's performance.

"What's HE doing here?" Bonnie bristled.

"We don't have to deal with him until night time!" Chica whined.

"Is there a God? Because right now I'm living in Hell." Freddy muttered.

Janet, seeing the stars of the restaurant cooped up in a huddle, frowned and walked towards them.

"Hey guys, what're you all doing, hiding away from here?" She asked with a little smile. "Don't you want to join the others?"

Freddy smiled and tipped his hat to her. "Just thinking of a few more jokes to keep the party going."

"Oh…okay." She nodded, silently wondering how many phrases they were programmed to speak. "Well, while he's here, why don't you come talk to the night guard. I've heard quite some stories from him about you four."

The four exchanged glances. How were they to politely decline without breaking character?

"Yar! There be a storm a brewin'!" Foxy swung his hook.

"…Right…" Janet nodded slowly and walked off to complete another task.

Three pairs of robot eyes stared at Foxy.

"What?" He defended himself. "I figure instead of breaking character just pretend like we're dumb animatronics like everyone thinks we are."

Bonnie shrugged. "I'm down with that."

"Foxy!" A shrill voice cut into their thoughts. They all turned to see a light haired little girl bounding up to them. She threw her arms around Foxy's middle. "My aunt told me all about you! She said you were her best friend when she was a night guard!"

"N-n-n-night guard?" Foxy stammered. He lifted his gaze and looked across the restaurant. At once, the world and all its inhabitants came to a standstill. Mother earth stopped turning for a second to stop and be jealous of the young lady that stood there. Nothing else in the room mattered except for the pair of eyes that outshined the stars or the smile that put the sun to shame or the short, neck-length hair that made the raven's jealous.

"M-M-M-Melanie…?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys it's Fandoms of the Opera and get ready for this chapter because this one's a DOOZY! It's REALLY LONG and it has a lot of…interesting things? And by interesting I don't mean like too kinky for kitty cats interesting, I'm talking about you read something and someone asks "Well how was it?" and you don't know how to describe it, so you go. "Hm…interesting…" Or WHATEVER so in the LAST chapter Melanie the whoever she is returns and hides in the pizzeria so she can spend more time with her old friends. But little does she know, she's about to meet someone who's known the animatronics less than he wishes. OR DOES HE?! BUHN DUHN. DDDUUUUUUUHHHHH! Alright this intro is getting lengthy and booorrrriiiinggg. ON TO THE STORY!**

As the light filtering through the windows turned from yellow, to orange, to a deep sunset scarlet, parents began to call to their children and rowdy, excited yells of kids turned to yawns and waves of goodbye cast towards the animatronics.

Every groan of the front door turned Foxy's head, and he was disappointed time and time again to see customers leaving. Until once, when a woman dragging her whimpering son out of the restaurant held the door for the stunning Melanie.

Quickly, Chica greeted her in her character fashion and showed her around, secretly taking her down a dimly lit hallway that lead to the supply closet. Making sure no one was following her, Chica opened the door and broke character.

"Okay, I know it smells like gross water in here, but you'll only have to stay in here for just a few minutes until the store closes and the employees leave." She explained as Melanie looked about the crammed hiding space she was granted.

"What happens if an employee comes in?"

"Don't worry about that, we'll make sure it doesn't happen." Chica smiled. "See you in a bit, girl."

Melanie framed her eye with her two fingers. "See ya girl."

"Chi-chi!" Came a hiss from the end of the hallway. Chica whirled around to see Freddy urgently waving at her. "Come onnnn!"

"I'm coming!" She called, rushing down the hall to meet him.

"They're about to lock up." Freddy muttered, trying not to look out of place.

Chica was about to reply when Rex, a young employee with the sides of his head shaved and the top rather ploofy with hair, walked up with a small smile.

"Hey guys! It's that time of the day again." He tapped his watch. "Let's get you guys back to the stage with Bonnie." Even though they knew the pizzeria better than any employee, Chica and Freddy followed Rex around backstage where Bonnie had already been 'deactivated'. Rex set them up in their lock-down positions and tapped their 'sleep-mode' switch. Freddy and Chica bowed their heads slowly, pretending to shut down.

"Alright…now where'd Foxy go…?"

Oh GOD! The only thing from stopping a paw flying to Bonnie's head was the stern warning glare Freddy shot him. He wouldn't really try to go and see her NOW would he…?

"Ah, there he is! Hey, Foxy!" Rex hurried off.

Thank God…

"Come on, pal. Bed time." Rex said, walking up to Foxy with a yawn.

That's what you think. Foxy thought, allowing Rex to take hold of his hook to lead him down to Pirate Cove. Ever since the 'Out of Order' sign had been removed from Foxy's room, he'd been lead by an employee down to Pirate Cove. They thought the dark lighting would cause his program confusion or something like that.

Fed up with waiting, Bonnie was close to blowing his circuits. How long does it take to walk to Pirate Cove?! You walk down the hall; you walk back up the hall. How does a human move so slowly?! He was just about to hiss something to the others next to him, when he heard one of the employees.

"Alright guys, we're lockin up!"

"Coming!" Answered Janet's voice.

The sound of hurried footsteps was heard coming from the direction of Pirate Cove.

"Oh, Rex, there you are! Come on, we gotta go, bro!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, hold your horses!" Rex grumbled, hurrying alongside Janet to the main entrance. There was the sound of a door being closed and a key being stuffed into a lock and jerked back out again.

"Alright. Coast is clear. Sort of." Freddy said.

"Yeah. Mike's gotta do his weird routine check-around-the-pizzeria-for-several-hours-because-you-got-here-too-early thing. And we have to wait…up here…like this…for several…freaking…hours…" Bonnie growled darkly.

"Wow…you can actually feel the hate that radiates from him." Chica nodded with a mock expression of impression.

"All joking aside, guys, we are going to have to stay up here like this for several hours." Freddy pointed out.

They all groaned.

A few hours passed. Melanie, still sitting silently in the cramped janitors closet, was getting quite bored. Her knees where cramping and aching. Silent as she could, she stretched out her legs just a tad. Her foot bumped into the mop, which knocked over a broom and all crashed on a few buckets. She gasped and froze.

Fast footsteps were heard in the hallway. Who's were they? They couldn't be an animatronic's, they were too precise. But the employees had all left…Melanie's heart began to pound in her chest, threatening to burst. She fear washed over her in churning, fighting waves. She was nearly hyperventilating. The footsteps got louder and louder, their owner was getting closer and closer…

The door knob jiggled. Melanie caught her breath. The door swung open with a creak. A tall man with frowning eyes stared into the room. He wore a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria night guard uniform and a hat atop his head read 'Security' in bold letters. The nametag pinned to his chest read 'Mike'.

Upon seeing Melanie in the janitor's closet, the man blinked in confusion. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, looking stressed.

"Oh boy…" He groaned. "God, don't tell me I've got a psychopath on my hands."

"Huh?"

"Listen, lady, we closed. Party's over. Out." He jerked his hand behind him and leaned against the door frame.

"Um…actually…Mr. Mike…I…I-

"Lady. Listen." His eyes grew darkly serious. "It's dangerous in here after hours. You really need to get out before-

There was a clatter from another room. Mike's eyes darted around. He grabbed Melanie's arm and hauled her to her feet.

"Come on." He quickly lead her through the dark hallways with the aid of his flashlight and before she knew it, they were in the night guard watch room. The fan hummed peacefully, the desk was cluttered as always. Mike closed the door they rushed through with the press of a button. He went behind his watch desk and fell into the rolling chair, propping his feet up on the desk top and briskly skimming through the cameras.

"Well, missy." He started, sarcasm dripping from his lips like a tasteless honey. "Looks like you're stuck here for the night, because you couldn't read the 'We're Closed' sign."

"Oh no." Melanie smiled. "I'm here on purpose. I came to see Foxy and the others. It's been quite some time…"

Slowly, Mike lowered his screen, revealing a face that very clearly said 'Oh my God is she crazy? I think she's crazy!'. He blinked and looked her up and down. "Listen. You're very pretty. But you don't know what happens here at night. I do. It ruined my childhood."

Melanie rolled her eyes. "I've worked here too!"

"Mmhmm, sure thing, pretty thing."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't hear that last part."

There was a tapping at the door. They both turned to stare at it.

Silently, Mike reached over and clicked the light on. Foxy's face stared through the window. Mike clicked the light off. As he caught a closer glimpse of the newer night guard, Foxy thought he'd recognized a face like that. It was true, his memory wasn't like it used to be anymore, but still he felt he should know the man on the other side of the door. Mike…Mike…where have I seen him before?

"See what I mean?"

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Just let him in, please. I know he looks a bit frightening but he's really very sweet." Her words would've melted Foxy's heart if he wasn't racking his memory for any former in formation of Mike. By now it was starting to irritate him that his memory was just as bad as a human's. Every memory that was bubbling up was of Mike sitting there in the office or walking into the restaurant earlier today. I know I've seen him here before...

"No, you don't know what goes on around here, like I said, it ruined my childhood."

"You came here as a kid?"

Mike looked up from his cameras slowly. "Once or twice, yeah."

Now that didn't seem right. Surely he must've come here more than that, Foxy was sure of it. He rubbed his chin with his hook and sailed through his stormy sea of a memory again.

Melanie raised a doubtful eyebrow.

"I was a kid! Don't tell me you never came here as a kid."

Melanie smiled. "It was my favorite place to go when I was little. I came here all the time with my friends."

"Is that so?" He looked back to his cameras, raising his eyebrows.

"It is so." She leaned against the door to which Foxy was slumped against. Think, think, think..."

"Who was your favorite animatronic?"

"Favorite…? Never had one." Mike grumped.

"Oh come on. Everyone has favorites. Just pick one, anyone."

"Foxy."

_THAT'S IT! _Foxy came close to banging his head on the roof as he jumped up with recognition. He grinned widely at his memory. How could I have forgotten so easily? Then again…it's been quite some time, hasn't it? He straightened his posture and knocked on the door with his hook.

"Aye, Mikey, it's been quite some time since I last seen ye', lad!" He started with a grin. "Ye remember me don't ye'?"

On the other side of the door, Mike froze. He glared at Melanie. "That's not funny."

"What isn't?" She asked.

"How did you program him to do that?"

"I don't pro- He does that on his own!" Melanie leaned against the wall, activating the button to lift the door.

Foxy stepped in and beamed at the night guard. Mike sunk into his chair and stared at him with round eyes.

"What's wrong, laddy? Don't ye recognize me?" Foxy shrugged.

Mike stared at him and traveled back a long time ago. Back to a time when he was just a little kid, running up to Foxy and giving him a big hug while sporting a pirate's bandana and eye patch.

_"Foxy!" Mike ran up and gave Foxy a big hug. _

_"Aye, Mikey! Good to see ye, lad!" The red fox patted him on the head._

_"Foxy, when I'm big, I'm gonna be a pirate just like you!"Mike said._

_"Is that so?" Foxy grinned._

_Mike nodded. "You're my best friend!"_

The night guard blinked and rubbed his eyes, sitting up and looking again at the animatronic that smiled at him. He tilted his head, blinked again, and the light of his childhood sparked in his eyes.

"F-foxy?" He asked with the voice of a child.

Foxy beamed at him and Mike rushed to hug him again.

"Hey. The door was open and I just thought I…what is he doing?" Chica stopped mid sentence and frowned at Mike who was looking much like a little kid as he hugged Foxy.

Melanie shrugged and smiled as Mike flushed with embarrassment and stood away from them, frowning again.

"Nothing, just…just got some…childhood stuck in my throat." He patted his chest and cleared his throat.

"Good to see you, lad." Foxy smiled at him.

Chica tipped her head a bit, not quite sure she understood everything, but figured it was something to be discussed later. "So what do you plan to do, explain everything to him?" She asked Foxy, pointing to Mike.

"Yes, I think it's time we really told them what's going on." Foxy gave her a grim nod.

Chica saw the shadow flicker across his eyes and her inside gave an uneasy whirl. "Alright. I'll get the others." She turned and quietly left the room.

"While she's getting the others, I guess I'll start you two off with the run down." Foxy lightly scratched his forehead with his hook. Melanie casually sat on the desk while Mike sat in his (rather comfortably) rolling chair, looking much like a child again as he gazed up at his old hero.

"I'm sure you've heard of the murders of five children that happened years ago in the pizzeria." Foxy started.

Immediately, the human's happy gazes dropped and their faces turned pale. Melanie slightly nodded.

"I'm also sure you've heard that their bodies were never found. This is slightly untrue. The bodies were found."

"By who?" Mike asked quietly with a frown.

"By us." Freddy stepped through the door grimly, followed by Bonnie and Chica. "In us."

"I don't understand." Melanie said.

Bonnie sighed and his gaze became glassy with the shadows of an old nightmare. "It was a long time ago…"

(Flash back)

_"Ooooohhh my head…" Bonnie groaned as his programs restarted again. He felt weak and slow with a foggy, fuzzy memory. "Foxy? Freddy? Chica, you guys here?"_

_"Yeah." Foxy groaned. _

_"What happened?" As Bonnie's eyes adjusted, he saw that he was back on stage with his friends. It was the normal setup, apart from Foxy, who was supposed to be in Pirates Cove._

_"I don't really remember but...I feel…" Chica stopped suddenly and the others felt their exoskeletons turn, sickened._

_"Oh my God…" Freddy choked._

_Thin trails of blood were leaking out of Chica's mouth. She stared back at them and the same horror was on her face. As they gazed at each other, they all saw blood leaking out of each other's eyes and mouths._

_"I think I know why we're feeling heavier than usual." Freddy said in a shaking voice._

_"Who did this?" Bonnie asked, horrified that at that very moment he wasn't alone inside of his suit. _

_"An employee." Foxy said with certainty. "I remember the purple uniform."_

_"Okay, yeah, that helps. But which employee, there's several!" Chica reasoned, standing stiffly. They were all uncomfortable and cautious about moving at that point._

_"Could it have been the night guard? Jeremy?" Freddy asked, tapping his chin, only to draw back quickly as drops of blood stained his paw._

_"No, Jeremy's too skiddish." Bonnie shook his head. "He's been paranoid about everything ever since his first night on the job, remember? He's scared, not psycho." _

_"We have to figure it out soon." Chica claimed with determination._

_"We will." Freddy promised. He sighed. "But right now…we need to take care of…this." He gestured to the blood draining from their suits._

(End of Flashback)

"The bodies were inside the suits?" Mike asked.

At Freddy's nod, the two humans turned sickly pale and their eyes rounded wide.

"What did you do with them?" Melanie whispered.

"Buried them." Bonnie shrugged. "It was the least we could do."

"Not at first." Freddy shot Bonnie a stern look. "At first we didn't know what to do with them, we left them in there. That…that was a bad option. Their souls weren't at rest at all. There were a lot of close calls with us…not being in control of our actions."

Several of the animatronics swallowed and exchanged very nervous looks. And Freddy quickly continued before their human companions could have time to think more on that topic.

"But eventually we realized that their souls needed to be at rest. One Saturday night, we slipped out back and buried their bodies. After that, the ghosts became less…violent."

"Did you ever find the killer?" Mike asked.

"Yes…" Freddy sighed. "But not until recently. He was an employee, but one we never really expected. In fact, our memories had been tampered with the night of the murder. After that incident, we couldn't remember any of the employees except for the night guard, Jeremy."

"We couldn't even remember our maker." Chica bowed her head.

"The murderer," Bonnie started. "He's been haunting this place at night; a psychopath. He's insane. Literally."

"Vincent?" Mike asked.

At the sound of his name, the four animatronics instantly stiffened up with a sharp intake of breath.

"You saw him?" Chica breathed.

"Y-yes." Mike looked around and frowned as he realized all eyes were on him. "The other night, I saw a guy in a purple uniform walk by the window. I thought it was one of the other workers coming to get a lost coat. When I called out to him, he turned to me and gave me this…really…creepy grin. He pointed to his name tag and the next thing I knew, he was gone."

"Did you say Vincent?" An echoing, soft voice piped up. The ghost of Jess appeared in the doorway. Behind her, the ghosts of Laura, Jim, Chris, and Paul peered in at her.

Mike and Melanie shrieked and rushed to Foxy, nearly toppling him over. Foxy put his arm around each of them, Melanie staring at the ghosts with huge round eyes and Mike burying his face in Foxy's red fur.

"Jesus Mike, grow up." Bonnie muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Hey look, it's the night guard!" Chris float-skipped over to Mike and poked him in his side. "Mr. Night guard, can I play with your flash light?"

Mike, paranoid, took out his flashlight and threw it at the ghost. It sailed through Chris's transparent head and fell at Jim's pale white feet. "TAKE IT SPIRITS! TAKE IT!"

"Mike. Jesus. They're just kids." Bonnie said, holding back a spiteful laugh.

"Now listen you kids, didn't I tell you not to scare Mike? He's trying to do his job." Freddy scolded.

"He looks scared." Laura said, pointing to him. She held her hands up to her head and made a silly face. "Grrr!"

"Stop it, Laura! That's mean!" Jess shoved her ghost companion, making her fall through the wall.

"Freddy, Jess pushed me over!" Laura wailed.

"I want to play with the flash light!"

"No, let me have a turn!"

"You guys never let me do anything!"

Freddy ran a paw through his fur and groaned. Melanie and Mike became less of afraid of the slender, pale spirits before them.

Bonnie pasted a smile on his face. "Hey, hey, hey now. Quit that. Did you leave Vincent all alone in that dark old closet again?"

All of the children exchanged guilty, solemn looks and stopped whining.

"I'm sure he's very sad and lonely there. Why don't you go ask him to play a game with you, or read you a bedtime story?"

"He's always sad!" Paul whined. "We keep trying to do things to make him happy, but he just keeps being sad!"

"My grandpa was sad for a long time." Jim said. "Mom said it was a sick-sad. Is that what Vincent has? Because my mom said that sick-sad doesn't go away for a really long time."

Bonnie squinted and looked at the others. "Sick-sad? What is that? I don't speak child."

"Uhmm, depression, maybe?" Chica shrugged. "Depression is a really long sadness."

Turning back to the children, the bunny nodded. "Yep. Yeah. Vincent is sick. That's why he needs you all to keep trying to cheer him up. Because if you don't, he'll never be happy again."

"Come on, let's go see him, shall we?" Chica asked, gathering the children together. She lead them cheerfully out of the hallway.

"They've forgiven him? Don't they understand what he did to them?" Mike tipped his head, leaning against the desk and frowning.

"They're children, Mike." Freddy sighed. "They don't understand to the full extent of what happened to them. All they know is that they can't go home, and they can't grow up."

"Why don't they move on?" Melanie asked. "You know, to the afterlife."

"The only way you can enter the afterlife is if a loved one, a family member, leads you there." Bonnie explained.

"Like a parent." Mike said. "Or a grandparent…"

"Exactly." Foxy nodded. "And since they were only children at the time of their death…"

"They won't be traveling to the afterlife until one of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, or siblings dies and leads them there."

"Why can't an ancestor lead them there?" Mike asked. "Like a great grandparent or something?"

"There's got to be a connection. You've got to know them personally." Freddy shrugged. "For example, let's say Jess has an aunt that lives far away, and the only way Jess and her aunt communicated was through letters, they never spoke in person. Now, after Jess's death, her aunt dies. Her aunt won't be able to lead her into the afterlife, because they don't know each other. Not well enough."

"That's deep." Mike murmured.

"But what about Vincent?" Melanie asked. "He's a good-guy now all of a sudden? I thought you said he was mentally unstable?"

"He was…but he's…cured now." Foxy rubbed the back of his neck.

Mike and Melanie exchanged a glance. "Cured?"

"You should really see for yourself." Freddy said. He turned and headed out the door. "Come on."

The five of them headed down the hallway, Freddy in the lead and Bonnie in the rear. Foxy walked in the middle, holding Melanie's hand with his good paw and dealing with Mike clutching his arm on the other side. Again, Bonnie rolled his eyes. Jesus Mike. Grow. Up.

Freddy lead them down a hallway neither of the humans had seen before. The atmosphere became cold and heavy and it became darker and darker as they ventured. Mike clung to Foxy that much more. Being able to see well in the dark, Bonnie rolled his eyes and nearly threw back his head and groaned with annoyance at the night guards fear. Come on dude. You're a NIGHT GUARD for Christ's sake.

As they neared to the doorway to the closet to which no human except for unlucky Vincent had ventured into, Mike and Melanie wrinkled their noses.

"Dear God," Mike muttered. "It smells like something died in here."

"Something did." Freddy said, turning the knob to the old creaking door and revealing the hidden room.

The room was the size of one of the other storage rooms, but for the most part was empty. The dim lighting shone down on a dirty floor, covered in puddles of dried blood. There in the corner was the old, dull yellow 'spring trap' empty animatronic suit. It was now a gruesome sight, heavily leaking dried blood and displaying springs and machinery jutting out.

Upon the door being opened, Mike and Melanie nearly hurled at the horrible odor of a rotting corpse that swamped them. Mike gagged.

The disgusting animatronic's head lifted and fixed them with a purple-eyed stare. "Oh…hello, there. You must be the Melanie I've been hearing about from the kids… and Mike, the night guard. I apologize for giving you a fright the other day." A rough, crackling voice spoke through the creaking, cracked jaws. "Sorry you have to see me in this state…I'm uh…not feeling well."

"Vincent's brain was diseased during his time on Earth." Freddy explain. "As he is dead now, mental illnesses have no effects on ghosts. He's healthy as a horse… well…spiritually speaking."

"So you mean, he would've been a good guy if he didn't have a mental illness?" Melanie asked.

"Exactly. The other day, Vincent was frightened by the ghost of Laura, who appeared to him to ask him why he slaughtered her and the others. In his fear, he stumbled and fell into spring trap's suit…and I guess you can assume what happened next."

"So he's controlling that thing with his soul?" Mike asked, hardly able to withstand the reek of the room.

"Yes." Vincent nodded.

"Why doesn't he move on to the afterlife?" Melanie asked. "Hasn't anyone come to get him? I mean, he is a grown up after all."

"I'm not going until they're gone." Vincent croaked solemnly. "It's the least I can do to repay them for what I did."

"That's deep." Mike nodded.

"Why does he use a suit instead of being a ghost like the children?" Melanie asked.

"Too ashamed." Bonnie said. "Alright, Vince, Chica was supposed to be coming here with the kids but I don't know I guess one of them wanted to go run around or something." He shrugged. "See you later, m'kay?"

"Okay."

Freddy shut the door to the lonely ghost's room and began to lead them out of the hallway again. "Vincent suffers from depression now. He's free from his disease, but he'll never be able to know what it's like to live freely. He's also dealing with the fact that he murdered five children, and, you know, that's a little difficult."

"But wait," Mike frowned. "I thought you said ghosts didn't have mental illnesses. How can Vincent have depression if he's a ghost?"

"Depression isn't a mental illness, lad. It's something emotional that cuts into your soul…Most of the time. " Foxy explained.

"Sometimes, Foxy, I wonder if I'm drunk or hallucinating. And then I wake up two minutes later going 'Oh, okay, THAT explains it.'"

"You're not dreamin' lad, if that's what yer thinkin'." Foxy chuckled.

"So what now?" Asked Melanie as they neared the night guard's office. "That was a really depressing history lesson."

"Well, look at the bright side. You and Foxy are together again, Mike's reunited with his childhood friend and hero, and Vincent's…not…evil anymore. These are all good things, right?" Bonnie shrugged.

"But wait," Mike started. "What about that spring trap suit? Why isn't it all alive like you guys are?"

"Spring trap was made in a factory, created after we were. It wasn't made by the maker who made us, and proved as an ultimate failure to our little…gang thing we have going on here." Freddy explained, circling his paw, gesturing at his fellow animatronics. "So in a sense, Vincent can be the new spring trap if you want to say."

"But wait," Mike frowned. "What about the other animatronics, from the old restaurant? Like marionette and mangle and the toy animatronics?"

"After the old place closed down, all of those animatronics were sold out in an auction. For whatever reason, the management decided to keep us four." Bonnie explained. " At first, no one really wanted an animatronic in their house, but after they saw what good housekeepers, caretakers, and family guardians us animatronics can be, they were all adopted by families and passed down generation to generation as a treasured member of the family. They all are pretty content being a part of a family…or family tree I should say, considering the years that have gone by…"

"But wait,"

"JESUS MIKE!" Bonnie groaned.

Mike ignored him. "How do you all still communicate?"

Freddy pulled out a smart phone from under his hat. "Duh."

"We're not cavemen, lad." Foxy pointed out.

"Oh, social media. How convenient." Mike rolled his eyes.

"Because of our social account names and profiles, the internet thinks we're just people pretending to be…well…ourselves." Bonnie explained.

"But wait."

"There's more." Bonnie interrupted with false enthusiasm and jazz hands.

" Why has no one pieced it together yet?" Mike asked, shooting an offended look towards bonnie.

Before Bonnie could punch the night guard in the face, Foxy intervened and answered his question. "We don't use social media often. And we use code-talk."

"Anymore questions before the tour comes to a complete end, Mikey?" Bonnie hissed, irritated as they all filed into the night guard's office.

"No." Mike huffed. He went around to his desk, propped his feet up with a yawn and grinned tiredly. "I swear. I'm gonna wake up in the morning and this will all have been a dream. Or a nightmare. I'm still processing which one it is. Meeting Foxy was awesome, but Vincent…that, that was horrifying."

"Boo!" Jess cried, jumping out from behind Mike's computer screen.

"EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The night guard screamed and fell out of his chair.

The little ghost giggled and floated away.

"A-and t-t-that….that, that's terrifying."

"Boo. Hoo. Poor. Mike." Bonnie muttered blandly, touching Freddy's nose on the poster pasted on the wall. Honk it replied.

"That's very entertaining, by the way." Mike said, climbing back into his chair. "I did that for a while before I remembered I had this." He pulled a gaming device from his uniform shirt pocket. "Now I don't need a poster for entertainment…In retrospect I don't need this either, because for as long as I've been working here, I've had the life scared out of me by you guys." He propped his feet up on the desk again. "By the way that…that hurt. My childhood turning against me- that was harsh, guys."

"Your childhood?" Melanie echoed. "I thought you said you only came here once or twice as a kid."

Mike shrugged and muttered something inaudible while Bonnie and Freddy exchanged glances and shrugs. Foxy merely smiled. Chica, left out from the conversation, appeared leaning in the doorway. "I let the kinds hang around the...the..." She shook her wing in the direction of the main room, forgetting the correct term for it. "That room, with the TV remote."

"What're they gonna watch? Adds?" Mike asked, busied with his game. As far as any of the management and guests knew, the only TV in the restaurant featured adds for other family oriented places.

"We have Netflix." Chica said. As Mike and Melanie shot her interested looks, Chica pulled her wing to her beak. "Shh. Management doesn't need to know."

The two nodded and seemed content.

Freddy opened his mouth to say something, but the chiming of a clock cut him off before he could say anything.

"Six already?" Mike rubbed his forehead. "That went by quicker than…well, ever."

Bonnie shrugged. "See you tomorrow, Mike." He waved goodbye and headed out to the other room, followed by Freddy and Chica.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going." Melanie scooted off of the desktop and wrapped her arms around Foxy's neck, giving him a big hug. "See you later, gator." She winked at him and left the room. Foxy beamed as she went.

As Mike gathered his belongings together, and turned off the fan and the computer, Foxy gave him a grin.

"Aye, Mikey, I still be needin' a first mate."

"Come on, knock it off, Foxy." Mike rolled his eyes. He headed for the door when Foxy held out something that caught his attention. "What's this?" He took a piece of cloth from the animatronic's paw and saw that it was a bandana like the one he used to wear when he was a kid. He raised an eyebrow at Foxy. "Really?"

Foxy shrugged.

Mike took off his night guard cap and tied the bandana around his head. "Well?"

"You look like lil' Mikey again."

Shooting a glance at the doors to see if anyone was lurking, Mike leaned forward and gave Foxy a big hug. Foxy smiled at him. Mike pulled away and put his cap on over the bandana.

"You're uh…still my best friend, you know." He said sheepishly.

Foxy patted his head. "It's good to have you back, Mikey."

**I desperately wanted to do a cliffhanger for this chapter but I couldn't find anything! Oh well. So yeah! ALL WEEK this week my creative juices have been juicing and I've just been like "Oh my God. I GOTTA WRITE!" But I couldn't because I have this horrible thing called 'homework' and this other horrible thing called 'spring cleaning'. So one night I just went "SCREW IT!" And I wrote like EIGHT PAGES of…I don't even know what to call it anymore. I'll upload more next weekend like I promised. Oh yeah, the reason I didn't upload this past weekend was because I was on a reeeaaaally long spring break vacation….well…it was one week but hell it sure felt longer. Anyways, that's all for this chapter. FOTO (Fandoms of the Opera) Out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, hey, hey it's FOTO. I have had the complete opposite of writer's block starting this month- and I think that's good for both this story and you viewers. I have been looking for inspirational music to keep this 'writers unblock' going. Alright this chapter isn't exactly going to as serious as the last few. Well…I mean it kind of is and it kind of isn't. I've been dealing with a lot of serious and depressing things this week so when I sat down at the laptop I was just like "Serious? Nah." This also might be some of the few non serious things in this story, since I plan to have a sad ending to this story. I tried to think of a happier one- and nothing came to my brain. Alright I'm done with this intro. Chapter time. **

"Come on, Foxy, morning's here." Rex's voice stirred Foxy out of his thoughts. For once in a very long time, the animatronic was just about to enter his sleep mode, but the sound of a new day woke him up. The employee drew back Foxy's violet curtains and tapped him his shoulder. "Come on man, waky, waky."

Foxy raised his head and yawned widely, stretching his gaping jaws. He stretched his arms and legs and cracked his back as best as an animatronic could. "Mornin' lad." He yawned to Rex.

Rex gave him a confused look. "…Morning…Come on, it's a new day and the kids are really eager to see their favorite pirate." He looked to the place where the 'Out of Order' sign used to be. "Gee, I'm sure glad they took that away. Heard about the thing in 87, they never said which one of you guys did it, did they?"

"No." Foxy growled. His voice crackled and he patted the spot on his chest where his voice box was located behind his furry outside.

Again, Rex gave him a look. "Geez, buddy, how many phrases can you respond to? Didn't think you were programmed to respond to things that, you know, happened later on in your life or whatever." He shrugged. "Anyway I'll see you around pal. I've gotta go to work." The young man yawned himself and ran a hand through his Mohawk, turning and walking out of Pirate Cove.

Foxy grabbed the edge of the curtains to lazily wipe off a smudge on his hook. It'd been a long, long time since he'd actually felt decently tired before. He didn't like it, either. It was a groggy, slow feeling that prolonged his daily enthusiasm. Stifling another yawn, he headed out of Pirate Cove and into the full swing of the restaurant.

Freddy and the others had already finished performing their song and were heading off stage to great the joyous children. Foxy looked at the clock on the wall. Aye…I slept in…for once. As Bonnie and Freddy entertained the kids, Chica broke away and headed over to talk to Foxy.

"Hey what happened, you went into sleep mode or something?" She asked with a smile. "I'm actually pretty sure I did." He said with another yawn.

"Really? That hasn't happened in a while… what's it like?"

"Nice…until ye wake up." He blinked his eyes. "Couldn't do it every night. It'd be too stressful."

Chica nodded. "Oh yeah, what was up with Mike the other day?"

"Aye, I nearly forgot." Foxy scratched his forehead with his hook. "You remember lil' Mikey?"

"Lil' Mikey…" Chica thought for a moment. "Oh yeeeah! I loved that lil guy!" Her face brightened. "He was so aderable!"

"A-der-able? You wanna repeat that?" Bonnie asked, joining them.

"Don't hate." She shot the bunny a mean look.

Bonnie shrugged. "What are we talking about?"

"Lil' Mikey." Chica smiled.

"Lil' Mi- oh you mean that cute little kid who'd always hang around- yeah, that little dude?" Bonnie smiled slowly. "Yeah I remember that guy!"

"What about him?" Chica asked, turning to Foxy.

"That's Mike the night guard."

"No." Bonnie and Chica said in synch, Bonnie with more of a rumbling chuckle.

"There's no way." Bonnie said.

"Just imagine Mike, younger, and less of a jerk." Foxy said.

"That's not gonna happen." Chica shook her head. "Just because they have the same name doesn't mean that they're the same person."

"I know." Foxy pressed, rolling his eye. "But I also sorta kinda have a good mem'ry." He nodded. "I know Mike."

"Well then why didn't you say something earlier?" Bonnie asked, narrowing an eye.

"Because it wasn't as obvious til now." Foxy shrugged.

"Yeah, GREAT memory."

"Sorry Foxy, I just don't believe you." Chica shrugged. "I don't see it."

"Dear God." Freddy muttered, stopping as he was heading near them to stare at the door. The other three turned and saw Mike walk in, being greeted again by Janice, and still sporting his bandana and childish smile.

"I take it back. I believe you completely." Chica said, staring. Bonnie nodded along with her.

After being greeted by a few employees, Mike beamed at the animatronics and headed over towards them. Foxy gave him a big hug.

"Aye, Mikey, good to see ya, laddy!" He gave the human a decent rub on the head with his knuckles.

Bonnie and Chica tilted their heads as Mike laughed. "I can see it." Bonnie nodded. "A little bit."

"See what?" Mike asked, looking at their looks of mixed bewilderment, surprise, and recognition.

"Lil' Mikey." Chica squeaked, beamed.

"I thought we were done on this subject."

A laugh rumbled out of Bonnie. "Not anymore. Not ever." He shook his head slowly.

"Hey guys, this is great and all," Freddy started. "Family reunion, wooooo. That' s cool. I get it. I'm happy. But we kind of sort of have a job to do. Not you Mike. You just look like a creep, no offense."

Mike gave a shrug. "I still feel pretty happy. I mean hey I'm not dreaming, but I could be crazy. Or dead."

"Well it's a good thing you're still looking at the cheery side of things, Mike." Chica said with a sigh. "Alright see ya man we gotta do stuff. But hey, I guess we'll catch you later." She quirked her eyebrows and went off with Bonnie.

"So…" Foxy said, clapping his paw to Mike's back. "The night shift and the day shift now eh?"

"Just want to get used to the environment I'm working in." Mike claimed.

"Obviously." Foxy raised his eyebrows and laughed. "How've ye been Mikey? The last time I saw ye', ye' was just a little lad."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was a little kid. We've been over this." Mike rolled his eyes. "It happens."

"Aye, but it's a bit sudden when one day yer lookin' at a child and the next yer lookin' at…you." He gestured to his old friend with his hook.

"Yeah…it might not have been so bad if the last day I saw you wasn't the same day of the 'Bite of 87'." Mike shrugged.

Foxy gave him a sad smile. "Aye, that would've helped."

"What is it with that guy?" Janice asked, grabbing Rex by his sleeve and watching Mike and Foxy from near the counter.

"Who, the night guard?" Rex asked, looking around the room until his eyes fell on the man to which she was referring to. "He looks like a little kid with that bandana." He raised an eyebrow.

"He keeps talking to the animatronics like…like…well look at him!" She narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, well I hear a lot of different things about the night shift here. Apparently it's really freakin' weird. Remember hearing about that skiddish guy Jeremy?" He shook his head. "I heard after the incident he was really crazy fidgety all the time."

"But what about the other guy? The guy we had here before Mike? He just…stopped coming to work…and no one's heard from him since…"

Rex rolled his eyes. "Dear God, Janice. What do you think happened? Maybe there's a giant ghost-conspiracy going on here that you need to worry about." He said, leaking sarcasm like a pipe.

Janice huffed and turned away. "I'm just saying! That Mike's a weird guy."

"Listen, Janice, I love to hear you being paranoid just as much as the next guy, but Mike works the night shift and I work the day shift and in that case I do not care about anything Mike does." Rex shrugged. "Just the way I work, Janice."

The two employees turned as the sound of the manager's office door creaked and opened. The manager poked his head out and motioned for Janice to enter his office.

Rex crossed his fingers as she swallowed and walked that way. Fire her. Fire her. Fire her.

"Do you think anyone's gonna notice me talking to you?" Mike chuckled.

"They probably suspect you're really weird." Chica commented, walking by them. She dragged Foxy away with her, pulling him by his ear.

"Where you going?" Mike asked, following them.

"To work….? That thing that we have to do every day?" Chica stopped and gave him a stern look.

"Oh…yeah."

"Yeah…and you should probably go to that place called home and do that thing called sleep so that you won't be really tired for YOUR job." Chica thumped the off-duty guard on his head and turned him towards the door.

"Alright, alright, I can see when I'm not wanted."

"Took you long enough."

"Hey!"

Chica laughed and waved him goodbye as Mike headed out. Foxy smiled.

"It's good to see him again."

"I can tell." Chica grinned, letting go of his ear. "I think we should do something for him. Since he's back in the gang, you know."

"What'd ye have in mind?"

Meanwhile, Freddy and Bonnie were walking around the room, talking to children. At some point a kid had climbed on Bonnie's shoulders and now was getting a free piggyback ride.

"I should start charging them." Bonnie snuck a sly comment to his friend.

Freddy rolled his eyes at him. "That would get the manager in trouble."

"I was joking."

"I know but I'm just saying…" Freddy trailed off as Janice came out of the managers room with a small stack of papers in one hand and a stapler in the other. She went to the wall near the stage and took a paper from the stack, posting it on the wall. It was an employee's notice. Freddy and Bonnie exchanged a frowning glance.

After the sun went down and the daylight employees left their job to continue on with their lives outside of work, Mike unlocked the doors to the restaurant and looked around with a bit of a smile.

"Okay guys! I'm back!" He called out into the dark, quiet place.

No response. He took a few steps forward and looked around. "Guys?" Silence. The lights were out, and the only thing Mike could hear so far was the soft hrrrr of the fan that he'd left on in his office. He scratched his head over his bandana. Maybe I was hallucinating or something. He shrugged with a grumpy sigh and headed towards his office. He walked through the strangely closing doors and flicked on the loudly buzzing light.

"HAPPY BIRHTDAY MIKE!" Four voices shouted.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The night guard nearly fell over with surprise and being startled by the four animatronics.

"I think we overdid it." Chica muttered.

"Nah, he's scared like that all the time." Bonnie shrugged, stifling a chuckle.

"On your feet, lad." Foxy took Mike's hand and helped him to his feet. Still a bit shaken, Mike tossed his 'security' cap on his head and gave a small chuckle.

"I-it's not my birthday." He said.

Foxy crossed his arms and narrowed his eye, tipping his muzzle down darkly. "I told ye, didn't I?"

"Hey. We have 365 tries to get it right. 364 now." Chica shrugged. "Besides what else were we going to jump out and say?"

" 'Surprise'?" Freddy gave her a quizzical look. "Obviously."

"At least we didn't write happy birthday on the cake." Chica folded her arms smugly. "Ha! Plus 15 Chica points!"

Mike walked over and observed the cake sitting atop his desk. "Gee guys, you really thought it was my birthday?"

"Not really." Bonnie chuckled. "We don't really care about that."

"It's just a little welcome back gift, if you will." Freddy explained, straightening his bowtie. "That, and you never really had time to finish your little family reunion thing you had going on earlier."

Mike sat at the desk wearing a grin. "Well thanks."

"Cut the cake already, I'm starving." Bonnie groaned as Chica went to cut off a slice.

"I am!"

At this, the guard frowned. "You can't eat food."

"Says you, Mike the non believer."

"You're animatronics. Animatronics don't eat food." Shrugged Mike.

"Do animatronics talk like us?" Bonnie growled.

"Or think like us?" Freddy asked.

"Or laugh like us?" Chica beamed.

"Or feel like us?" Foxy clapped his old friend on the back.

Mike shrugged again. "That doesn't explain how food works."

"Our maker made us able to break the chemicals in food down into electric energy." Freddy explained. "There used to be a more scientific explanation located in my memory but after it was…tampered with…that and a few other things were sadly forgotten."

"Like your birthday!" Chica said with a smile.

"Whoever your maker was, they were some genius." Mike said as he was handed a slice of cake. "It's either that or I'm in a coma or had some serious brain damage or something."

"But you don't!" Chica beamed optimistically.

"He very well could've." Freddy warned, raising an eyebrow. "Remember the bite of 87?"

Everyone shivered.

"Don't remind me." Foxy shuddered.

Mike frowned. "Foxy, you didn't do it, remember?"

"He could've been a part of it." Chica said darkly. "His gears were tampered with, too."

"Tampered gears? What are you talking about? Didn't some animatronic just randomly attack that kid?"

The four exchanged frowning glances. They looked at Mike.

"Not quite…" Bonnie frowned.

"Vincent, seeing that both Foxy and Mangle had sharp teeth, tampered with their gears, back when we used to actually go into sleep mode." Freddy started explaining. Bonnie pulled up a chair and fell into it with a 'here-we-go' look. Chica blinked and Foxy stood beside Mike, looking very much haunted by the memory. "It was just a little bit after we discovered the children's bodies. At the time I had…well…there was…." Freddy gestured to his muzzle. "A bit of blood leaking…"

"It was back in the old place, remember how Pirate Cove looked back then?" Foxy picked up where Freddy left off, nudging Mike. "Remember how the ceilings were? And we used to climb up there all the time?"

Mike laughed in remembrance. "Oh yeah! I used to climb up there and pretend that I was some pirate-hero kid." He laughed loudly. "Me and my kid self… Pirate Cove looks a lot better now than it did back then.

Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica exchanged looks.

Foxy chuckled, but it faded off as he continued to speak. "Aye, you and I were up there, well…you were at least. I saw Freddy in the other room tryin' to…fix the mess right quick…"

_Foxy glanced over into the other room and saw Freddy hiding from the others, taking many napkins and trying in vain to clean up blood leaking from his jaws. Chica bustled in with her toy look alike, carrying more paper towels._

_"Hey, Chi-chi go entertain the guests while I clean this up." She muttered. "I don't want anyone getting suspicious and…you know…" The toy animatronic cast a sympathetic look at Freddy and headed off._

_A sick feeling spinning in his gears, Foxy climbed down from the ceiling platforms and rafters in Pirate Cove. "Aye, Mikey! How's about ye come down from there, eh?"_

_"Not yet!" Cried a little boy above him, sporting a bandana and pirate costume. He held a little toy sword and was standing above Foxy, looking down on him with a wide grin. "Not until I beat you!"_

_"What's stoppin' ye from comin' down here then, lad?" Foxy returned the boy's grin and raised an eyebrow, trying to continue the game while steering the child away from danger._

_"It's funner up here!" The child ran across one of the beams and into a shadow. "Come and get me!"_

_"Come on down-" Foxy stopped suddenly as a strange feeling took control of him. He stumbled back against the wall as an eerie, heavy weight dropped over him. What's this? He asked himself. His vision blurred and he felt himself shaking. His ears felt clogged and the room seemed to shudder and shake._

_A cry echoed through his skull, sounding a bit far off, but Foxy knew where it was coming from. _

_"Foxy! Help me!" _

_Foxy lifted his head and saw the little boy stumbling and swaying on a thin, creaking beam of wood. "Mikey…" He muttered, desperately trying to shake off the groggy, slow weight trying to control him. His vision blurred and shook._

_"Foxy! Help me-AH!" The board beneath the child split with a crack and he and plummeted._

_"MIKE!" Foxy lunged forward and nearly tripped over his own two feet, catching the boy just before he could hit the ground. The slow, heavy, weight feeling had completely left and his vision was crystal clear. He was in control of his actions again._

_Still startled by the fall, the child threw his arms around Foxy in panic._

_"Aye, Mikey, you gave me a fright…" Foxy sighed in relief, patting his back. He caught sight of an employee standing in the doorway wearing a wide-eyed look and slowly putting on a smile._

_"Wow…" She breathed. _

_Suddenly an ear-splitting shriek sliced through the happy mood like an angry sword blade cutting down a helpless victim. The joy and relief in the atmosphere fell like a shattering wine glass. Foxy and the employee snapped their heads in the direction of the wail. The employee took off running with several other uniformed peopled. A few other cries and sickening moans had followed the shriek. Foxy could hear frantic yelling and panicked voices._

_The little boy in his arms whimpered. "W-what was t-that?" _

_Foxy patted his back again, fears and worries sweeping through his mind and a raging storm of uncertainty thundering through his endoskeleton. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Nothin' to worry about, Mikey." He said, trying to comfort the boy._

_Freddy, Bonnie, and the Marionette rushed into the room with frantic looks pasted on their faces. "Oh thank GOD!" They all collapsed as a great wave of relief washed clean over them. "You're…you're all good over here."_

_"Aye…we're alright…" Foxy wandered over to them, trying to keep the child in his arms from climbing onto his shoulders. "What's happened?"_

_"M-m-mangle…" Marionette stammered, round eyed. "M-mangle b-b-b-bit…s-she…"_

_"She bit a little boy." Bonnie said, wide-eyed and grim. "It's really bad."_

_"What?" Foxy gasped. "Why? What happened?"_

_Freddy shook his head. "I'm afraid the only one to tell you that is a bit shaken up at the moment…" He looked sympathetically towards the Marionette, who was trembling with shock._

_"N-n-nothing…the b-boy didn't do a-anything…" The poor thing stammered with a quivering voice. "M-mangle j-just…she j-just…lunged f-f-forward and…"_

_"It's truly very horrible." Freddy bowed his head._

_"S-so much blood…" Marionette whispered._

_An employee skidded to a halt in front of the door, sickly pale and frantic. When she saw the child in Foxy's arms, her eyes nearly popped out of her head in horror. "What are you doing with that kid?!" She hissed, rushing forward and ripping him away._

_"Foxy!" The boy whined, stretching out his arms._

_Foxy went to reach out, but held back. Right now, the animatronics looked like the bad ones. He stopped and hung his head. Freddy, Bonnie, and Marionette watched sadly as the crying child vanished from their sight. They heard more people yelling, someone sobbing, and the wild, foreshadowing whine of a paramedic's vehicle approaching the restaurant._

_"W-what's gonna h-happen to us n-n-now?" Marionette stammered, terrified._

_"I…don't know." Freddy and Bonnie exchanged glances. _

_What was going to happen to them because of this awful event? Would they be shut down for good? Sold? Torn apart? Would the restaurant close down? The very thoughts swirling in their gears made them panic even more._

_A man in an officers uniform looked into the room and started. He scowled at the four there, watching him mournfully and fearfully._

_"That one there, look." The officer pointed to Foxy and another policeman came up to look._

_The second officer nodded. "Yeah, I see. What do you think we should do?"_

_The first officer wiped sweat from his forehead. "The smart thing to do would be to close up shop. Shut 'em all down. Especially ones like that." He gestured to Foxy again and the pirate winced._

_Marionette nearly fainted, but instead whimpered and whined until Freddy put a paw on her shoulder. She shook her head and quivered._

_The officers exchanged a narrow eyed confused look._

_"Well…the manager did say they had special programming." The second one said, walking cautiously into the room._

_"That may be so…" A shadow crossed the first officer's eyes and he looked grim. "But apparently, like people, there are even animatronics with dark intentions."_

_Thanks a lot, Mangle. Bonnie spitefully thought as the second officer reached up to touch one of his fuzzy ears._

_"Don't touch them!" The first officer hissed. "We don't know how many are defective!"_

_"R-right…" _

_The officers took one last look at the four animatronics and left…_

"…And that's why they had me 'Out of Order' for a while." Foxy finished.

Bonnie thumped him on the back of the head. "You're supposed to say 'And THAT'S the Bite of 87!'"

Mike blinked. "Jeez, that's intense…I didn't know much about it since, well, I was a lil kid." A slight chuckle rumbled up in his throat. "I remember playing on the rafters though…and falling." He scratched the back of his neck. "Me and my kid self…" He reached into a duffle back and pulled out a water bottle with tinted liquid in it, popping of the cap and taking a big gulp.

On the wall, he saw an employee notice. Frowning, he pointed to it. "What's that?"

The animatronics cast each other awkward glances.

"Just a reminder saying that certain employees have to come clean up around here, tomorrow, even though it's a Saturday." Chica shrugged.

Mike leaned in closer and squinted. "Is my name on the list?"

Bonnie turned and looked at the flyer. "Yep. Lucky you, eh? Get to see us without our suits." He gave the night guard a look that glowed with the vivid colors of sarcasm.

Chica shuddered along with Freddy. "Oh God…"

Mike squinted again. "I'm confused."

"No surprise there." Bonnie raised his eyebrows.

"Our suits need to be cleaned every now and then, so at some random points in the year, a few employees will take a Saturday to drag off our suits and get them cleaned." Freddy explained.

"And we just stand there. Together. All in one room. Just our endoskeletons." Chica shook her head.

Slowly, the night guard shook his head. "No thanks, I don't think I want to see your creepy skeleton selves." He took another swig of his drink.

"Well look at who's names are on the list!" Bonnie ripped the flyer from the safety of the wall and handed it to Mike, who discarded it in the trash bin as soon as it was handed to him.

"I don't care." He smiled smugly, shaking his head. "Going back to the bite of 87, what happened to all of the other animatronics?"

"We told you, they were sold in an auction." Bonnie rolled his robotic eyes.

"With the exception of Mangle and Marionette, who were deactivated permanently." Freddy pointed out.

"Marionette was deactivated too?!" Chica snapped her head around to stare at him.

"Yes, Marionette was in the same room as Mangle during the attack."

"Okay, yeah, I get it. But why weren't you guys put in the auction? Or did no one buy you?" Mike quirked an eyebrow and took another sip from his drink, tossing a waded ball towards the waste bin and failing.

"How did you miss that- it is literally one foot from you!" Bonnie half-laughed.

Freddy ignored the skirmish. "The management decided to keep us. They had plans to reopen in the future, when the whole 'murder' and 'attack' thing died down." He raised his eyebrows. "Obviously, something like the loss of five children and the brutal attack of one doesn't just 'die down' as they foolishly hoped."

"Speaking of kids, where are they?" Mike asked, looking around and feeling his stomach drop as he remembered that there were currently six spirits haunting the place.

"They're vanished right now." Chica said, looking at a patch of dirt on her wing. At Mike's look of bewilderment, she continued. "They're not ALWAYS visible or ALWAYS present, duh. Otherwise we'd be dealing with them during business hours and, bleh, that'd be a LOT of trouble."

"You mean they're just…not here?"

The animatronics exchanged looks. "Kind of, yeah."

"Where do they go, then?"

"Do we look like ghost experts to you?"

Mike threw up his hands. "I don't know anymore!" He stood from his comfortable rolling chair and then stumbled back into it again with a hiccup.

Chica pulled the cake farther away from him, frowning. "What's your problem?"

"Nothing!" He took another gulp from his water bottle.

Foxy clapped him on the back with a laugh. "Enough about us, how've you been since the last time we saw ye'?"

Mike shrugged with a bit of a laugh. "Nothin' really. My house is within walking distance of this place, so that makes things easier for me. Just this little place a block or two from the park… got a lot of ants in the front yard though…I need to take care of that…" He rubbed his forehead, where his bandana was poking out from beneath his security guard cap.

Again, Foxy laughed, no one was quite sure why, but it'd been a long time since he'd been happy like this, so no one really questioned it.

"Well it's good to see you two getting along like the good old days." Chica smiled.

As the clock's gears turned with the passing of time, the two old friends 'got along like the good old days'. They told stories and jokes and laughed more than any of them had in a very long time. Eventually, all five of them had tossed away their serious thoughts for the happy atmosphere of the little party in the night guard's office. At around 3:26 AM, however, something became rather…observed…

Mike stood staring over the vast blue-green, rolling ocean. Above him was the cloudless, open sky that soared endlessly in any direction. The sun shot down warm yellow rays of light onto a few passing gulls that cried out a greeting. And beneath him, the swaying boards of the massive, sturdy ship creaked along with the water that whispered as the ship cut through it on its journey.

"Mikey! My first mate isn't slackin' off on the job, is he?" Bellowed the Captain, staring down at Mike from the wheel.

"No sir!" Mike turned with a grin, seeing Foxy dressed in a captain's cap and coat, steering the ship like a master.

"Then get to it, lad!"

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!"

"Yo, ho! Yo, ho! A pirate's laugh for me!" Foxy broke off with a laugh, singing with his arm thrown around his old friend sitting at the desk with a giddy grin on his face.

"Just like the good ole' times, ey, lad?" He laughed.

"Aye, aye, *hic* Cap'n!" Mike slurred, a dazed look in his eyes.

"What's up with him?" Chica asked Freddy, gesturing to Mike.

Freddy shrugged. "Probably just tired or something."

"Mikey it's been a long time since I've laughed so hard." Foxy said, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure glad to see ye' workin' here, and sure glad to talk to ye' again."

"Cue the cheers." Bonnie muttered to Chica and Freddy.

Foxy smiled and looked around the room. "To tomorrow!"

"To tomorrow!" The animatronics smiled.

"To *hic* t'morrow…" Mike slurred, slumping onto the desk.

"C'mon Mikey, your shift's not over yet!" Foxy nudged him, but the night guard only mumbled something inaudible and appeared to drool onto the wooden desk surface.

"He doesn't look too good." Bonnie said.

Foxy frowned.

"Here, stand him up." Freddy and Foxy helped the night guard to his feet and positioned him in the middle of the room. "Mike,"

Mike giggled. "…I'll be *hic* there in…a minute…"

"No, no, Mike…" Freddy shook him. "Look up. I want you to walk in a straight line right to the door. Okay? Okay."

The two stood back and watched the security guard take a diagonal step forward and trip over his own two feet, collapsing. When he tried to get up, he fell again, his movements uncoordinated, loose and slow.

The animatronics all exchanged glances.

"He doesn't look too good." Bonnie repeated with more of a chuckle, raising his eyebrows. "He really doesn't look to good."

"C'mon, lad, on your feet." Foxy helped Mike stand up and the guard slumped against his friend's shoulder, nearly falling down again.

"What happened to him?" Chica asked.

"Something he ate?" Freddy shrugged, looking at the stumbling guard.

"It's been hours since we had the cake."

"Yeah but what about his water bottle?" Bonnie gestured to the water bottle on the desk that had only a few swallows of the tinted liquid still remaining.

Freddy snatched it up and popped the top off, taking a good whiff of the contents. He raised his eyebrows and coughed. "That's not water!"

"Awww Mike." Bonnie groaned.

"You can't get drunk at work." Chica chided and shrugged.

"So what do we do with 'em?" Foxy asked.

Everyone exchanged glances and shrugs.

"This is a family oriented place- we don't deal with drunken people here." Bonnie pointed out.

"Well we can't just leave him here." Freddy said. "First off, he'll probably end up passing out here and waking up tomorrow with a decent hangover. Second, there's no doubt he'll be fired."

Foxy's ears drooped slightly. An idea slipped into his mind. "We should take 'em home."

"We don't know where he lives." Bonnie said, leaning against the wall.

"Didn't he say it was just a block or two from the park?" Chica asked, scanning her memory.

"Okay, but even if you were going to take him home, how are you going to walk around town carrying a drunk guy without being seen? A couple of animatronics just wanderin' around kind of isn't typical."

"It'll be dark out." Chica shrugged.

"And besides, its' almost 4 in the morning, how many humans are up and about that early?" Freddy shrugged.

"What if someone sees him in his uniform though? Seeing an employee at a place like this acting like…that…it might reflect badly on the company."

The three animatronics gave Chica a blank look.

"I think if someone sees us, Mike's attire will be the last thing they're thinking of." Freddy said.

"Yeah, and what else is he gonna wear? Nothing?" Bonnie frowned and shrugged. "Somethin' tells me that's also not a good option."

Freddy took Mike's security cap and shoved it into one of the desk draws, then clipped off his name tag and put it in his shirt pocket. "Happy?"

Chica folded her arms and scowled.

Foxy and Freddy each put an arm around Mike to support him, while the night guard slung an arm around each of them, muttering something inaudible. The two animatronics exchanged an uncertain glance.

"Alright guys." Freddy said. "We'll be back in…a few minutes."

Chica and Bonnie exchanged a glance as Foxy and Freddy headed out the door, Mike being dragged along with them. The two dragged the guard through the dark halls of the restaurant and stopped at the glass door entrance.

The dark blue sky was glowing with the millions of stars that were etched into it. A few cars drove by, the sounds of their engines muffled by the glass barrier. Though lights in the distance told them that the town was slowly waking up, for the most part everything seemed calm and quiet. Taking a deep breath, the animatronics pushed the glass doors open and walked outside.

**So I'm sure a good bunch of you are folding their arms at the way I wrote the Bite of 87. Some of you are probably saying "It was Freddy!" Or "It was Foxy!" and I'm sure some of you are also saying "There WAS no Pirate Cove back then! It was called KID'S Cove and Foxy was in parts and service!" And I'm very sure A LOT of you are telling me that Mangle and Marionette are both guys. Rest assured. There's a method to why I wrote the Bite of 87 this way. First of all, I always saw Mangle as being the one who caused the Bite of 87. I just don't like the idea that Foxy could've done it, and I doubt that Freddy did it considering that he's the main character at 'Freddy Fazbear's' and I think if it WAS Freddy- they'd probably have the whole thing shut down for good. ALSO I know that there was no Pirate Cove back at the old place and it was just called Kid's Cove- but I'm gonna cover that in Chapter 5. Last but not least, I heard that the gender for Mangle was supposed to be a guy, but to me it looks like a girl. I don't really think this matters much since Mangle isn't a big character in the story, however, if it REALLY pisses you off: sorry. Same goes for Marionette except the fact that I really, really see that character as having the personality of a frightened girl. *shruggity shroo* That's what my brain told me. Alight I think I covered everything. See you next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright here we are again. Last chapter was serious somewhat in the beginning and not so serious towards the end. This chapter is kind of sort of the opposite. Oh, good news: I've completely finished the outline for this story. That means that I will be finishing this story and not leaving it as an incomplete project. There should be around 16-17 chapters total. But I have to warn you: there WILL BE a somewhat depressing ending to this story. Also, I said in the last chapter that I'd explain the whole Pirate Cove- Kids Cove thing in this chapter- well…I'm not. But I will PROBABLY get around to the explanation around chapter 6 or 7. So if you're still bugging over that, rest assured. Alright I'm done with this introduction. Chapter time**

A gust of cool night air hit them as the doors closed behind them, leaving them out in the open world. The fresh, worldly atmosphere surrounded them, along with the sights and sounds everything they couldn't hear from inside. The trees nearby rustled softly in the wind and a few crickets and frogs sang in the night air.

Freddy and Foxy exchanged an uncertain glance. They looked at their mumbling, almost drooling, drunk friend and shrugged.

"I sure hope he knows the Schmidt we had to go through for him." Freddy muttered.

"Nice, Freddy. Nice." Foxy rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"At least I didn't swear."

"Oh no, that would be terrible!" The pirate mocked.

They paused and looked around. There weren't any cars in the parking lot, but on the open road, a vehicle rushed by at least several times in a minute. From what they knew, their little 'home' was on the edge of a cozy little town. But that didn't mean that they'd been out and about often. It also didn't mean that they knew where the park was.

"Where do we go?" Freddy asked, watching another car drive by.

"Don't know." Foxy shrugged.

"Well YOU'RE a big help." He sighed. "If we knew where the park was…"

"Can't you Google it?"

Freddy snapped his fingers and pulled the device out from underneath his hat, completely abandoning Mike, who slumped up against Foxy. Foxy rolled his eyes and reached another arm around him to keep him from falling again.

"Where do we live?" Freddy asked.

Foxy fixed him with a blank stare.

"Never mind. Forget I said that." He shook his head and looked back to the device that illuminated his face. After a minute, he clicked the device off and hid it under his hat again. "Alright, if we follow the road for a while, we'll end up at a busy intersection…and if we go left from there we'll reach the park."

"Right then." Foxy nodded. "We'll sure have to be careful about this place…what if someone sees us?" He asked as they started walking out of the parking lot. They headed for the sidewalk that lined the road.

"Considering it's nearly four in the morning, I doubt many humans will be out on the sidewalks. And those in their cars could quite possibly be paying too much attention to the road to notice us. However, if they do, hopefully they won't read too much into it."

"Hopefully…" Foxy raised an eyebrow as a car roared past them.

As they traveled down the walk way, they realized it was much louder out here than it was in their little home. They jumped at the sounds of trembling leaves, snapping twigs, and the sounds of squirrels and other nocturnal animals scattering through the line of trees on their other side.

Mike giggled slowly. "Hey…hey, Foxy…did you hear about the…scales?" He slurred.

Freddy and Foxy exchanged a glance. Freddy shrugged.

"No, lad, I didn't." Foxy responded.

"Sssshhhhhhhsshsh…it's a secret…" The guard beamed up at him lazily.

"Arr I bet." The pirate rolled his eye.

As multiple buildings and bright lights came into view, Freddy and Foxy shot each other very uncertain glances. They could hear and see more and more cars. More cars and more buildings meant more people. And more lights meant more opportunities to be caught by people.

"Aye…" Foxy coughed. "Awful bright down there, eh?"

"You know if we get busted I bet we could just explain our purpose to the cops and they'll let us go." Freddy said, hardly paying attention. "I mean, it's not like we left our post or anything- and it's….3:37 right now…"

"I s'pose." Foxy nodded. As he looked up, he felt his gears give an uneasy twist. Through the neon light-lit town, three figures were walking towards them. The animatronics exchanged glances. Freddy shook his head.

"Pretend like we're one of them. Be normal."

As they got closer and closer, Foxy could make out the figures of three teenage kids, all of them wearing white sweat shirts sporting a school logo and an image of three trumpets forming a triangle. One of boys elbowed the only girl in the group and jerked his head towards the strange three walking towards them. The girl grinned.

"Wicked party, eh?" The other boy asked, looking at Mike, slumped up and drooling on Foxy's shoulder.

"You know it." Freddy-half chuckled, pasting a smile on his face.

"Dude! Awesome costumes!" The girl gasped, looking them up and down. "Where'd you get those?"

"Made 'em ourselves!" Foxy said, desperately trying to free himself from his pirate-y speech.

"'Bet that took forever." The boy said, taking a cigarette out of his mouth and letting out a puff of smoke.

"Aye- I mean…Hey…you really shouldn't be doing that." Foxy gestured to the cigarette. "It ain't- I mean…It's not good for you."

Sheepishly, the kid extinguished the cigarette while his two friends cast him a scowl and comments like 'In front of an adult?' and 'Are you TRYING to get us caught?'.

"What are a trio of kids doing out at this hour?" Freddy asked.

The three teens grinned proudly and pointed to the trumpet triangle on their sweat shirts.

"Band practice."

"We're on our lunch break."

"Early birds get the worm."

Foxy and Freddy exchanged a look. At THIS hour?

"Lunch break?"

"Band practice?"

The kids laughed and cast each other prideful grins.

"Well...I guess we'd better be off now." Freddy said, gesturing to Mike. "This one's gonna have a fantastic hang over in the morning."

"F-Foxy…I f'got tuh….uuhhh…I got'a…*hic* got'a….got'a go fassst…" The night guard slurred.

The teenagers howled with laughter and Foxy couldn't hold back a mighty, bellowing seaman's laugh. At the sound of the pirate's laughter, the kids only laughed even harder.

"You guys are great!" They giggled, heading past them.

"Right…right…thanks…" Freddy and Foxy started off again, walking a bit quicker. Freddy shot his friend a glare. "That was a close one! If only they looked closer at you and your pirate self they could've realized some very important factors about you!"

"I can't help it, Freddy!" Foxy glowered at him. "'tis just the way I speak!"

"Oh, never mind," Freddy rolled his eyes as they made a left at the intersection and started heading down a street where the lighting seemed to get dimmer and dimmer and the buildings began to disappear. "We should be nearing the park soon anyways."

"Yo *hic* ho…yo, ho *hic* a pirat'sss lif-fur me…" Mike slurred.

"C'mon, Mikey, sober up ye drunk'n seadog."

Mike giggled. "Spi-*hic*-ke…I need to f-*hic* eed 'em…"

"Spike?" Foxy frowned at Freddy.

"Don't look at me! I don't know what he's talking about!"

As Mike continued to slur-sing 'A Pirate's Life for Me', Foxy and Freddy figured that it was utterly useless to try to help walk, and they merely slung the night guard over Foxy's shoulder. It made the trip move along a little quicker.

"What if he vomits?" Freddy raised his eyebrows towards Foxy.

"Mikey. I. Swear. To. God." Foxy growled through gritted teeth. At Freddy's chuckle, he continued. "I love the lad t' death…but I deal with enough lil' kiddies gettin' sick at least once a week."

The town park's lights were off. The playgrounds were abandon, the walk ways were silent, the basketball courts weren't alive with the heat of a game, and the picnic areas were devoid of food. Just past the park was the very fancy entrance to '- Estates'.

"Think he lives in there?" Foxy asked, gesturing to it.

"Only one way to find out." They headed in.

The neighborhood they entered was much darker than the other streets they were on. All of the house's porch lights were shut off and the curtains were drawn over the windows. Only once did a car drive by; someone most likely on their way to work.

"There's so many houses here…" Freddy groaned as they continued walking. "How are we going to know which one's Mike's?"

"Said somethin' 'bout ants, didn't he?" Foxy asked.

"That doesn't help much."

The two nearly jumped out of their suits as they heard a loud and vicious dog's barking. They looked ahead to a small house with a chain-link fence surrounding it. Jumping on the fence, snarling, slobbering, and staring at the animatronics with hateful eyes was a big, slick-furred Doberman. Though it was dark, they could see pearly white fangs snapping with every scornful howl. Strapped around its neck was a spiked collar.

"…That's not Mike's house, is it?" Freddy asked.

"Surely not."

Several lights flickered on in a nearby house and a window opened. "MIKE SCHMIDT I SWEAR TO GOD! YOU SHUT THAT MUTT UP BEFORE I CALL THE AUTHORITIES!" A woman screamed at the top of her voice.

Freddy and Foxy groaned. "Of course."

Freddy cleared his throat. "S-sorry ma'am!"

"DON'T YOU 'SORRY MA'AM' ME! YOU PUT A MUZZLE ON THAT THING BEFORE I HAVE IT PUT DOWN!" The window shut with a slam.

"Lovely neighbors." Freddy rolled his eyes spitefully. "Come on, let's make this quick."

They rushed to the house with the chain-link fence and the angry dog. A golden tag hanging from the spiked collar read 'Spike' in bold letters. The dog paced back and forth by the gate entrance, growling and bearing dangerously sharp teeth.

"Well? Open the gate!" Foxy urged, trying to keep Mike from falling off of his shoulder.

"Oh right, and let Cujo out? Are you freaking kidding me?" Freddy pointed to the dog.

Foxy rolled his eyes. "Hold 'em." He dumped Mike into Freddy's arms and turned to the dog. Taking in a deep breath, he leaned over the fence and shrieked at Spike. The dog let out a squeaking yelp and sprinted behind the house.

"Quick! Get in!" Foxy hurried, hoisting Mike over his shoulder again.

Freddy swung the gate open and the two sped in and locked it again before Spike could make a comeback. "Great going, Foxy. Instead of waking just the next door neighbors, let's wake the ENTIRE FREAKING NEIGHBORHOOD!"

"At least they aren't comin' out to holler at us." Foxy raised an eyebrow as they headed up the steps of Mike's front porch.

"With a yell like that, they're probably too afraid to." Freddy reached for the door knob and turned it. He froze. He jiggled the door knob, yanking on it and nearly pulling it from the door. He blinked. "It's locked."

"Locked?" Foxy nearly dropped Mike.

"Yep."

The two stared at each other for a long time. A gentle night breeze disturbed the neighbor's wind chimes. Spike whimpered and poked his slim muzzle around the corner of the house.

Freddy chuckled. "And his keys…"

"…Are on the desk…" Foxy snickered.

"…At the restaurant." Freddy laughed, a deep, slow, snickering laugh.

Foxy threw back his head and laughed like a hearty sailor.

"Wow. This is so funny I could BREAK something!" Freddy scowled, still laughing. "I could SNAP something RIGHT IN HALF!" He clenched and unclenched his fists several times, stomping back and forth across the porch. "I am REALLY angry!" He yelled, cackling.

Foxy frowned at lock and tipped his head, scratching behind his ear with his hook.

"I am so MAD I could just snap this wooden pole right in HALF!" Freddy yelled, gripping one of the wooden posts supporting the porch ceiling. "I could PUNCH that dog to CHINA! I could YELL at that lady's FACE! I could-

"We're in." Foxy said.

"What?" Freddy whirled around, watching Foxy open the door with Mike still slung over his shoulder. "How did you…?"

Foxy grinned and raised his hook. "I figured if people can pick a lock with a paperclip, I could do it with me hook."

Freddy grinned from ear to ear. "I'm happy now."

Ducking through the doorway, they entered the house, Spike slipped in just after Freddy. By now, the dog was less hostile towards the visitors, wagging his stubby little tail and ducking his head with his pointy ears held down. Inside, the house was dark. Freddy cut the light switch on and looked around. The carpet beneath their feet was soft and very different from the hard floors back at the restaurant. It was much smaller and cozier in here as well.

"Where do we put 'em?" Foxy asked.

"Just dump him on the couch."

Foxy shrugged and set Mike down on the sofa in front of the TV. Spike waddled over to his owner and started licking his face.

"No Spike…don't *hic* bite the…the g-gg…" Mike turned over and muttered something inaudible.

"Now what?" Freddy asked, admiring a snow globe on the coffee table next to the sofa. He picked up and delicately turned it upside down. "It's really small in here."

"Maybe we should leave a note?" Foxy shrugged, looking at a pad and pen on the carpet.

Freddy shrugged. "I guess." He watched the fake snow flutter around within the globe. "What about his shift tomorrow?"

"I think he'll be sobered up by then."

"I meant the day shift. He's got to clean the suits, remember?"

Foxy paused, then frowned and headed into the kitchen. "Aye, that's a problem." He called. "What do ye think we should do?"

"We could call the manager's office? Or at least, leave a voice mail saying that he won't be able to come in tomorrow since he has a bad…fever." Freddy shrugged.

"Sounds good to m-" There was a tinkling shatter. "AH FFF-"

"DON'T SAY IT. I SWEAR TO GOD FOXY." Freddy whirled around, seeing Foxy scowling at a broken glass on the floor.

Foxy let out a breath through gritted teeth and pasted a sharp-toothed smile on his face.

Freddy nodded. "Very good." He picked up the house phone on the coffee table. "I'm gonna call the management. You leave a message for Mike." He gestured to the pad and pen on the carpet.

Foxy nodded, still fuming, and picked up the pad. Figuring that he had a hook on his right hand, he figured that he must be left handed…or pawed… Foxy naturally had the mouth of a salty sailor, but since he was around kids every day that wasn't exactly acceptable. The Fazbear crew had done their best to keep his sailor talk away. Back at the old place whenever he swore, they slapped him across the muzzle. Unfortunately for all their efforts, they couldn't keep Foxy from swearing entirely.

Freddy took a deep breath and dialed the number he'd had memorized for a long, long time, despite the fact that he never thought he'd need it. It was a voice mail, like he hoped.

"Um…H-Hey It's Mike…Mike Schmidt." He fake coughed. "I uhh…can't come in today because…I've got a really, really bad fever."

Foxy quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah…sorry about that…thanks…bye…" Freddy quickly hung up. "…What? I've never made a phone call, okay? Okay!"

"I finished the note anyways." Foxy said. He tore the sheet of paper off of the pad and set it down on the coffee table.

"God, your handwriting is horrible." Freddy said.

"Thanks, friend."

Freddy chuckled. He looked around and gave a small nod. "Alright I think we're good to go."

"Sweet dreams, Mike." Foxy said as he cut the light off and the two exited the house. As Foxy walked down the porch steps and out into the front lawn, a thought hit him. "Hey Freddy, do you think Mike will come into work tomorrow, thinkin' he's still got a job to do?"

There was no reply.

"…Freddy?" Foxy turned around.

The bear was standing on the porch, staring with a concentrated look on his face at the ground. He didn't speak. Foxy frowned and walked up to him.

"…Freddy?"

"Foxy…we walked from the pizzeria, through the town, past the park, and into Mike's house…and the only people who saw us thought we were wearing costumes…"

"Yeah? So?"

Freddy chuckled slowly, then threw back his head and laughed loudly.

"Heh, heh…what…what are we laughing about?" Foxy tipped his head.

"Foxy my friend!" Freddy gripped Foxy by his shoulders and shook him. "Do you know what this means?!"

"…We should get back to the pizzeria before sunup?"

"IT MEANS: WE-CAN-GO-ANYWHERE-EVER!"

A wide grin crossed Foxy's face and a light flickered in his eyes. "Aye, a pirate's life for me."

"Where do you wanna go first?" Foxy asked, grinning at his friend as they walked out of -Estates.

"Well there's a whole world of things we can do! We can get ice cream, we can ride go carts, we can eat pancakes…"

"In other words… we can go to Tennessee?"

"EXACTLY!"

Foxy nodded "Right…"

"We can go to the movies, we can go to the beach, we can see the mountains, we can build a snowman, we can…*gasp*…we can go ICE SKATING!"

"Mm." Foxy raised his eyebrows in false interest. "Sounds facinat'n. What do ye wanna do first?"

Freddy grinned. "Eat everything. Ever."

"We're home!" The bear's oddly cheery voice called from the front door, along with the swishing of a plastic bag.

"Good LORD!" Chica rushed forward to them. "Where WERE you?! Do you have ANY idea how long you were gone?! It's nearly six AM! We thought something horrible had happened to you! Where have you…what did you…what…what's in the bag?"

Foxy grinned. "Stuff."

"Stuff we got."

Bonnie poked his head around the corner. "How? All the shops are closed this early."

"Doesn't matter, does it?" Foxy shrugged his shoulders and slid into the night guard's office with a smug grin. "We paid for it."

"How?" Chica folded her arms and leaned in the doorway, unamused.

"We borrowed a penny or two from our dearest and most beloved friend." Freddy said haphazardly. "Nothing to be concerned over."

"What did you get?" Bonnie asked as Chica shook her head and threw up her arms in frustration.

Foxy opened the bag and pulled out a big navy blue pirate costume coat and swung it across his shoulders with a wide grin. "What do you think?" He raised his eyebrows.

"I think you're insane. Both of you. All of you. I can't BELIEVE you- you…" Chica's words trailed off as Freddy hauled a big yellow sundress out of the bag. It was pale yellow and white with lace and ruffles and had bows and ties everywhere. "Oh it's beautiful!" She cried, flinging her arms around it and hugging the soft fabric. "It's absolutely gorgeous!"

Freddy and Foxy grinned at each other.

"Told you." Freddy laughed, pulling out a tuxedo jacket and wrapping himself in it. Chica and Bonnie gawked.

"That looks expensive…" Bonnie frowned.

"It's a costume." Foxy chuckled. "We raided- I mean…broke into and bought- costumes. We can't afford the real stuff."

"I don't care." Chica smiled, sliding into the dress and twirling around in it joyously.

"Here- this is to go with that guitar o' yer's." Foxy handed Bonnie a costume leather jacket and the bunny grinned.

"I should get a mullet- and we should write 'grease' on the back."

"Let's…not…do that…" Freddy shook his head.

Foxy shot Chica a scowl as she started humming music from the age old musical.

"So how's Mike?" Bonnie asked, sitting in the very comfortable rolling chair.

"Aaahhh…Mike…you know him and his…drunk-ness." Freddy half-sighed, half-laughed. He gave up on buttoning the top button to his costume. "He's at home. We left him a note and left a voice mail saying he couldn't come in tomorrow because he has a bad 'fever'."

Bonnie coughed. "Hangover." And coughed again.

"In all honesty, we should probably take these clothes off, and only wear them at night." Foxy sighed, abandoning his pirate coat. "Management will get suspicious and we have to get…cleaned…tomorrow."

Though they knew their friend was right, they all groaned in disappointment.

"Where should we hide them? The clothes, I mean." Chica asked, sighing and taking off her pretty new dress.

"You can hide them in Vincent's closet." Paul's quiet voice piped up from the doorway, and the little ghost boy appeared there. The four animatronics turned to look at him. "That's a good hiding spot, right?"

"I…suppose so." Chica tipped her head, not sure how she felt about keeping her new possession in the same room as a rotting human.

"How is Vincent, by the way?" Bonnie asked, putting on a happy outlook. "Feeling any happier?"

"He says it's hard to tell the time, because it's always dark in the closet."

Bonnie and Freddy exchanged a look.

"Well…would he like to walk around a little bit?" Chica asked.

"I don't know. He keeps talking about Gatlinburg. And black bears. I think he likes black bears. Jess drew a black bear for him. He says he wants to see real black bears. I told him I've never seen a black bear before. He says there's black bears in Gatlinburg. And he wants to take a field trip there to see them."

The four exchanged several glances. After several shrugs and looks of confusion, they turned back to the ghost boy. They stared at him.

"Maybe we should go see Vincent." Foxy said to Chica.

She gave a nod. "I think so."

As they traveled down the dark hallway to Vincent's room, the insides of the four animatronics whirled with concern. They hadn't spoken to the lonely, former psychopath ghost for a few days, and had forgotten that the wounded soul (as awkward as it made them) needed to have the animatronics there to connect him with the world he was residing in now, since he refused to cross over.

Freddy knocked on the door and opened it slowly; it creaked on its hinges. "Vincent? You in here?"

"Yes." Said the quiet ghost. He was still perched inside spring trap, the animatronic's dull yellow fur still caked with dried, dark crimson ooze. The sharp, metallic tang of blood and the hot reek of a decaying corpse hung in the air like a thick, muggy fog.

Trying not to keel over from the smell, the animatronics all filed into the room, putting on a sympathetic look and trying their best to come up with encouraging words for the ghost instead of words of hate.

"How are you?" Chica asked, seeing the ghosts of Jess and Laura playing patty cake on the floor next to a very poorly drawn picture of a big pink bear.

"Okay…not great…but I guess I can't complain." He chuckled dryly, the possessed suit's jaw creaking with every word. "It's…pretty hard to tell time in here…" He looked at the flickering light overhead.

"It's almost six in the morning." Bonnie said.

"Freddy! Look at my black bear I drew!" Jess jumped up and picked up the drawing of the pink bear.

"Why is he pink?" Freddy asked, pasting on a smile.

"Because it's a girl bear."

"Oh, of course."

Vincent gave a chuckle. "Oh, is that what color it is?"

"You can't see it?" Foxy tipped his head.

Vincent shook his head. "Not really." And carrying on in a more uncomfortable tone added. "W-when you kill someone in your lifetime; it does something to your soul. It gives you a…scar…on your ghost body. For example…I'm colorblind."

Bonnie tipped his head. "That's interesting. I didn't know that could happen."

"Neither did I." Vincent said.

"Would you like to take a walk?" Freddy asked, trying to direct the subject away from death. "You've been crammed up in that suit for a while."

"Um…sure…I'll try." He paused. "I…forgot how to…"

Chica and Bonnie went to either side of Vincent and wrapped an arm around him, help him stand up on shaking metal legs. A dark ooze coated them.

"Remind me to take you out back one day and help you clean your corpse out of this suit." Bonnie said, wrinkling his nose.

"S-sorry." The ghost stammered sheepishly, trying desperately to walk.

"C'mon buddy, one foot in front of the other, remember?" Chica said.

"What are we gonna do with him, Foxy?" Freddy asked, scratching his head as he watched Chica and Bonnie lead the gory, ghost-animatronic down the hallway.

"I don't rightly know." Foxy shrugged. "I'm sure he won't be much of a problem. After all, he's dead. And cured."

"Still, we can't just keep a rotting dead human in the pizzeria. We don't want to start all THAT over again." Freddy sighed, remembering how awkward and difficult it was to move back when the body of a child was inside his suit with his endoskeleton.

"Maybe he could be walk around and play in the daytime. Like you guys do." The ghost of Chris murmured, smiling up at them.

"Uh…yeah…maybe…" Freddy and Foxy exchanged a concerned glance.

"Alright, Clove, since it's your first day here, Janice and I will do most of the work." Rex said, heading into the silent pizzeria carrying a bucket of soapy water and two sponges. He was flanked by Janice, her hair up in a ponytail, and a petite green-eyed new employee named Clove.

"It might take a while…since lazy Mike didn't show up." He grumbled.

"Mike?" Clove echoed.

"He's the security guard here." Rex explained.

"Stay away from him. He's weird." Janice commanded quickly.

Rex stared at her. "Janice."

"Well he is!"

"Here…" Rex reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Scrolling through his photos, he found a picture of Mike wearing his red bandana laughing with Foxy. He showed it to Clove. "That's Mike."

She blinked, thinking that the guard seemed rather handsome. "He doesn't look weird."

"I didn't say he LOOKED weird. He IS weird." Janice said. "Stay away from him."

"Oh my God, Janice…" Rex groaned and shoved his phone into his pocket again. "If you think he's such a creep why don't you complain to the manager about it."

"What does he do that makes him weird?" Clove asked.

"He's just…he always hangs around the animatronics and talks to them like…like…he just…it's weird." Janice shook her head. "C'mon, Rex, you gotta admit that's weird."

"I don't know Janice, maybe he's just reliving little bits of his childhood." Rex rolled his eyes. "Okay, Clove, we're here because we have to take the suits off of the animatronics and clean them. That doesn't seem like such a problem, except for the fact they don't like getting baths."

Clove laughed as they turned and headed down to Pirate Cove. "Very funny."

"I'm not kidding." Rex said, seriously, his voice level quieting as they approached the cove. The violet curtains were drawn shut and Foxy was peacefully at rest in sleep mode, snoring softly.

"They snore?" Clove asked.

Janice shrugged. "I don't even know anymore."

"Okay…now…what you really want to do..." Rex whispered. "Be slow, and quiet, and very carefully…tackle him to the ground."

"What?"

Rex and Janice lunged forward and jumped at the fox. Foxy opened his eye at the last second and shrieked as his attackers fell on him. He failed his arms wildly and screamed, trying desperately to throw the two off while they removed his suit. All the while, Clove stood away with her hands over her ears, watching with round green eyes.

"Keep screaming till your voice box runs dry, big guy." Rex grunted, trying to take off the last piece of the suit.

The suit-less endoskeleton was released. He stood up, snorted angrily at the two, and fled into Pirate Cove again, tightly drawing the curtains shut.

"Alright. One down, three to go." Rex said, panting.

"They look scary without their endoskeletons." Clove murmured.

"Aye, and I bet YOU don't look so fair without yer clothes on, either!" Foxy snarled.

The three humans turned at stared at the closed curtains.

"…"

"…"

"…Did he hear me?" Clove whispered, her eyes the size of saucers.

"Let's go get the others." Rex said, walking quickly out of Pirate Cove. He groaned to himself. "Since Redbeard the pirate over here sounded the alarm, the other ones are probably on edge."

Little did Rex know, he was absolutely right.

**Alright! A lot of goodness going on in this chapter. Though it isn't realistic, I thought it would be comical to give Mike the hallucination of being on a pirate ship with Foxy. That's why I put that in the story. Also, I know most/ some of you are probably going 'Um…Helloooo? Where theh hip hoppity is Melanie? Wasn't this story about her and Foxy?' Well, yes, it was supposed to be. But somewhere around the third chapter I suddenly realized; I freaking HATE Melanie :( I don't know why, I just can't stand a thing about her. That and I don't know I don't think I'm really going to have any big couples in mind for this story. However, if you guys think I should pair two people up, tell me and I'll think about it. As much as I don't like Melanie, she's going to end up playing a pretty big part near the end of the story. However, if this is going to happen, she's not going to be appearing much through the chapters. Alright, done for now, see you next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey HEY everyone! M'kay so this chapter is gonna probably have another blast from the past and a flashback (because those are awesome). Also, warning, if you're angered by me having Marionette as a girl- I recommend you not reading this. Alright? Alright. Chapter Time.**

Mike walked through the front doors of the pizzeria Monday morning, trading in the summer breeze for the blessing of air conditioning. Already, he could see Janice carrying pizza somewhere, Macy at the register, and Rex speaking to a mother who was scowling at his bright red Mohawk. But there was also a new employee there; she was petite with a braided pony tail and leaf colored green eyes. When she caught sight of Mike, she quickly looked away and headed off somewhere.

"Yo, Mike." Rex said, walking up to him, his gages wavering slightly with each step. "You didn't show up to help clean, Saturday. What's up with that?"

"Sorry I had a…fever." Mike said the last word slowly, remembering the note that Foxy had left in his living room. '_If anyone asks ye, lad, just say ye had a terrible fever.' _He still had yet to thank Foxy for what he did, and ask him of just how he managed to get to Mike's house and back without being spotted.

"Mmhm. Sure." Rex quirked an eyebrow. "It wasn't so bad, really. We got it done pretty quickly this time. It's weird…I _swear_ they're angrier without their suits on. Especially when they're all lined up, the atmosphere gets all awkward and tense." He glanced up on stage where Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica were singing.

Mike shrugged, pretending like it wasn't an intriguing subject."Who's the new girl?"

"Hm? Oh, that's Clove." Rex turned to the newer employee, who had just been given a mini lecture from Janice. "Hey Clove! Come over here!"

"Yeah?" Clove asked, walking briskly over to them.

"This is the night guard I was telling you about." Rex said, nudging Mike.

"Talking about me behind my back, eh?" Mike raised his eyebrows. "Wow. Ouch. That hurts. Backstabbing coworkers."

Rex rolled his eyes with a grin and Clove giggled.

"I'm Mike Schmidt." Mike reached out to shake Clove's hand.

"I'm Clove." She shook his hand shyly, her face turning slightly pink. "Um… why do you wear that bandana?"

"Oh, my best friend gave it to me and…" He trailed off and shrugged. "I don't know actually." His attention to his coworkers was hindered for a moment as he watched a group of kids rush up to Foxy, who was lumbering out of Pirate Cove, and nearly tackle him, laughing. Foxy merely smiled and talked to them eagerly in his character.

"You really should've been here Saturday." Rex said. "It was horrible."

Mike chuckled. "Sounds like it."

"I um...I have to go…over there." Clove looked away and headed off somewhere, following Janice.

"What's with her?" Mike frowned.

"She's really shy." Rex rubbed his hands together. "Personally, I wouldn't hire a shy person for a job where they're dealing with strangers every day- but that's not for me to decide." He raised his eyebrows.

"Hey, Mike!"

Mike turned his head to see Melanie walking through the door, looking a bit hurried.

"That's your girlfriend?" Rex asked.

"No."

"Okay good. My mind was like 'no freaking way a girl like THAT is Mike's girlfriend'." Rex threw back his head and laughed.

Mike chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Rex."

"Alright, I'll see you later man." Rex laughed, waving and heading off.

Melanie took Rex's place in front of Mike. Her expression was serious. "Mike, listen. I need you to pass on a message for me."

"Okay, go for it." Mike said.

"Can you tell the…others…that I won't be visiting much? My grandmother is very, very sick and she… she says she's got something to tell me. She's going on about random things….I don't know what's wrong with her, but she keeps saying that she needs _me_ to take care of her. She refused help from my mother, and her other two sons…I just need to help her, okay?"

"Yeah, that's alright. I can pass the message along." He nodded. "Hope your grandmother gets better."

"Thanks Mike." Melanie sighed, looking very much relieved. She looked behind him, to Foxy, who was eagerly talking to children- probably making up some exciting story, and smiled. "I love watching the way the children look at them; it reminds me of when I was a little girl."

Mike turned around to see where her gaze lead and smiled. "Oh yeah, when I was a kid, I'd come here just about every day to see Foxy in Pirate Cove."

"…You mean _Kids_ Cove?" Melanie frowned.

"No, Pirate Cove. There was a Kids Cove _and_ a Pirates Cove, remember?" Mike turned and frowned at her.

Melanie opened her mouth to explain that back then, there was no such thing as Pirate Cove and Foxy was in parts and service the whole time, when she caught sight of Foxy himself behind Mike. The pirate was shaking his head wildly at her and put a finger to his closed jaws. Melanie got the message.

"Oh, yeah! That's right! I totally forgot!" Melanie snapped her fingers and looked back to Mike.

"I was gonna say, that place was my childhood." Mike laughed. Someone called his name and he turned to see Janice waving him over. "Hey, see you later, Melanie." He waved and headed off.

Melanie made a beeline for Foxy, who now had two children climbing on his back, fighting for a piggy back ride. He sighed as she approached.

"What was all that about?" She put her hands on her hips and quirked an eyebrow at him.

Foxy shrugged. "Ye can't tell 'em the truth- about parts and service and all that."

"I don't believe it! You _made_ _up_ Pirate Cove? Just for him?"

"He was just a little lad." Foxy started. "Must've gotten lost and went to parts and service instead of…wherever he was headin' off to…I couldn't tell 'em off, so I...told him that he was in Pirate Cove instead of parts and service."

"And none of the employees got suspicious? No one saw this little kid sneaking off to parts and service? Not even his mother?" Melanie asked.

Foxy scratched his head with his hook. "I might've told 'em that there was a secret entrance to Pirate Cove…and that only real pirates were allowed in….Never really saw his mother…"

"Oh my God…Did he not see the sign that said parts and service? Wasn't there anything there that suggested what room he was in?"

"There were purple curtains, and weird shafts and things in the ceiling." Foxy said, recalling the old restaurant. "Matter o' fact, the ceiling was so oddly built, you could run around up there, like an obstacle course."

"Don't tell me you actually ran around _on_ _the_ _rafters_…"

Foxy grinned sheepishly.

"Are you _for_ _real_? Do you have any idea what would've happened if an employee had seen you? Or a parent? And what if another kid found this 'secret entrance'?" Melanie's eyes were wide. "_What_ _if_ _he_ _fell_?"

"No worries, lass. The main entrance to parts and service was blocked off back then, employees only went back there after hours. And I was always there, so lil' Mikey wasn't in any danger." Foxy smiled.

Melanie folded her arms. "I thought it was weird, how he had so many childhood memories of you when you weren't even brought out to the rest of the pizzeria." She rolled her eyes and grinned. "You're crazy."

Foxy smiled. "Can't argue with ye there, lass."

"So that's it then? You're never going to tell him the truth?" Melanie asked.

"Why would I need to? There's no danger in believing that parts and service was Pirate Cove...besides…The Cove might've been fake, but the good memories are genuine." He smiled as he watched Mike leave the building. "And, if you ask me, that's all that really matters."

_It had been about a week since the queer incident when the ambulances and police cars came to the pizzeria, and Freddy had said that Mangle 'bit' someone. After hearing about it, Mike's mother hadn't let him leave the house. But today was different- instead of keeping a watchful eye on him (like she rarely did), Mike's mother was locked in her room. Mike knew from experience that she'd be a while, so he tied on his eye patch and bandana and slipped out of the house. _

_Eager to see his friend again, the little boy ran down the sidewalks briskly to get to the restaurant. He wondered what Foxy would say to him, the last time they'd met, Mike had been forcefully taken away from him by an employee and told to come back only with his mother. But that speech didn't really phase Mike, he'd snuck of to the pizzeria loads of times without his mother and no one noticed as long as he'd followed behind another family. _

_As he neared the parking lot, he saw a man and a woman exiting a car with a little girl and heading to the front entrance of the pizzeria. Seizing the opportunity, Mike ran up behind to them._

"_Hi!" He said cheerfully to the girl. _

_She tilted her head, following her parents. "Who are you?"_

"_My name's Mike." He said. _

"_I'm Ally." The girl said. She looked around in space as if she didn't know where his voice was coming from._

"_I'm over here." Mike said, snapping his fingers like Foxy had taught him once to do. The man, Ally's father, scowled at Mike._

"_I know. I can hear you." Ally said as they entered the restaurant, still looking off into space._

"_Then why don't you look at me? Can't you see me?" This time, Ally's mother turned to glare at Mike._

"_No, I can't see anything." Ally said._

"_Oh…" Mike flinched._

_Ally smiled, looking unfazed. _

_As Ally and her family moved on, Mike slipped out of view from them and snuck along the walls of the restaurant, making sure to stay out of sight of the employees and adults. He headed near the room with the door labeled 'parts and service' to keep intruders out of the Cove. The little hallway to the door had large boards and planks of wood propped up against the walls. Checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was near, he pushed a board out of the way, revealing a hole in the wall, and crawled in, pulling the board back to cover his tracks._

"…_dum, dum, dilly-dum, dum, dum, dilly-dum, dum, dum, dum…"_

_Mike grinned from ear to ear as he heard his friend's humming. He saw Foxy's shape sitting with his back to Mike, hidden mostly behind violet curtains. Trying not to make a single sound, he tiptoed slowly up to the pirate. So far, so good…Foxy was still humming away. Just a few more steps…_

"_Ahoy!" Mike cried, leaping._

"_Gah!" Foxy started as he was tackled. "Oh, Mikey, it's just you…"_

"_Did I scare you, Foxy?" The little boy beamed._

_Foxy took on a proud grin. "Me? Scared? Never!"_

"_Me too!" Mike said. "I never get scared!"_

_Foxy stood up with the child on his shoulders. "Ye be the bravest pirate on the seas, Mikey." He sighed and sat down, sliding Mike off of his shoulders and patting his head over his bandana._

"_Come on, Foxy!" Mike ran up to a board and climbed up to the ceiling. He raced along the beams, but stopped when he noticed he wasn't being followed. "…Foxy?"_

"…_Uh…Mikey…why don't you come down from there, right now?" Foxy said, from bellow._

_Again, the boy's face lit up. He slid down one of the wooden rafters and bounded over to his friend. "Are we gonna sing a song?"_

_Foxy gave him a sad smile. "No, not right now…" _

_Mike sat down in front of his friend, still enthusiastic. "Are you going to tell me a story?"_

_Again, Foxy's eye clouded. "No, lad…" He took a deep breath. "Mikey...I'm…sick…right now."_

"_Do you have a fever?"_

"_Uh…sort of, yeah." He scratched his head with his hook. "But the thing is…I won't be able to play for a while..." He looked away. "A long while."_

_The child's joy was fading. "When will you be better again?"_

"_I don't know, lad." Foxy sighed, still not being able to look at him. _

"_Then I'll visit you every day until you're better."_

"_No, Mike…" Foxy sighed, hurt in his voice. "You can't come see me. Not for a very, very, very long time."_

_Mike's face fell completely. "…Why?" He asked, his bottom lip quivering._

"_I don't want you to get sick." Foxy explained."And the workers here, they don't want me to be around people."_

_The boy whimpered, wiping his eyes. "Do I really have to go away?"_

"_You can come back to see Freddy and Bonnie and the others…but not me." Foxy said, looking despondent. _

_Mike ran up and hugged Foxy tightly. "I'll miss you." _

_Foxy patted his head. "I know, lad."_

"_You're my best friend."_

"…_Aye, yer mine too." He hugged him briefly. "Go on, lad. I don't want ye runnin' into trouble."_

_Mike sniffed and wiped his eyes, nodding. "O-okay." He was turning to leave when the door swung open and an employee came in. When she saw Mike, she shrieked._

"_WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BACK HERE?!" She rushed forward and grabbed Mike's arm, dragging him out. "DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK TO THIS ROOM AGAIN, DO YOU HERE ME?! NEVER COME BACK!"_

Mike sat up quickly. The clock on the wall read 11:16 pm. He'd taken a nap on the couch and slept for longer than he wanted to. He sat up groggily and rubbed the back of his neck. _What a dream..._But he could still remember the day as if it had just happened. He remembered he'd run home crying, and his mother had scolded him and told him to never go back- just like the employee. He'd obeyed them both, and he hadn't gone back to the place until he applied for his job as night guard.

Spike's claws _ca-clicked_ on the kitchen tile and the dog wagged his stubby tail as he saw that his owner was awake. Mike patted his head and gave him a smile.

"Guess I should be getting to work, eh, big guy?"

The dog gave a whine and glanced over at his old, tattered, and ultimately disgusting chew toy on the carpet.

"I know, I know you want a new one. Maybe I'll buy you one tomorrow, okay?"

In fifteen minutes, Mike was heading out the door in his uniform. His wrist watch told him he'd probably be late, and he groaned slightly. As he passed his angry neighbors house, he saw her glaring daggers at his dog. He faked a smile and gave her a polite wave. _When I can afford it, I'm outta this place. _

Passing the park, he saw a single swing on the swing set creaking as it ominously swung. He shuddered at the way it looked in the glow of the yellow streetlights. The night breeze carried the smell of rain and a soft noise that was barely audible; the sound of someone crying.

Mike stopped and frowned, turning his head to the source of the sound. It came from an untamed patch of wildflowers that grew opposite to the park. With the colors of autumn beginning to appear on the trees, the flowers were wilting, and dying.

"Hello?" Mike called out, not taking a step forward. He'd seen enough crime shows to know not to follow a mysterious noise. "Is someone there?"

"…J-J-Jeremy?" The voice cried. It sounded like it belonged to a high school girl. "Jeremy i-is that y-y-you?" She sniffed heavily and sobbed. "Jeremy, I w-want to go h-home! I'm s-sorry for s-scaring you! P-p-please take me h-home! I'm l-lost a-and I d-don't know where I a-am and I j-just want to g-go home! I want t-to go h-home!"

Mike blinked and shook his head. "I'm not Jeremy."

"Y-y-you're n-not?"

"No." He raised an eyebrow. "Who's this Jeremy you're looking for?"

The voice sniffed. "He w-works at the F-Fazbear place."

Mike smiled. "Is that so? What's his full name?"

"J-Jeremy Fitzgerald."

Again, he frowned. The name didn't ring a single bell. "No…I don't think there's a Jeremy Fitzgerald at the Fazbear place…what does he do? Cashier? Greeter?"

"He's the s-security guard. H-he works the n-night shift."

Mike frowned harder and gave a laugh. "No he's not."

"W-what do you m-mean?"

"I'm the night guard at the Fazbear place…I've never heard of a Jeremy Fitzgerald."

The voice began to sob again. "W-what h-h-happened to Jeremy?"

"I don't know." Mike blinked. "Listen, this Jeremy, is he your dad or something? Can I give you a ride or something?"

"N-no… J-Jeremy's g-g-gone…I-I don't e-even know if home is h-home anymore!"

Mike frowned. "Who _are_ you?" He walked over to the wildly growing, slowly dying flower bed and squatted down, peering through the dark green and magenta colors for signs of a person.

"No one y-you can h-help." The voice sniffed.

Mike gave a bit of a smile. "I might be able to help you if you weren't making this so difficult."

"I c-can't tell you w-who I am…I-I'm supposed t-to be d-dead!"

"Dead? What? Is someone trying to _murder_ you?" Mike pulled apart the tall grass and nearly fell over in surprise as the voice in the flowers squealed. As the owner of the voice came into view, Mike's eyes widened.

"Oh my _God_…" He frowned.

She cringed in the grass and whimpered.

"_Marionette_?" He crawled over to her. "I thought you were deactivated! Well…I _heard_ you were deactivated…you look awful."

She was dirty looked very tattered and broken (physically and emotionally). "I was s-supposed to be…"

"What are you doing here?"

"I-I woke up in a b-big dark scary p-place. T-there was a l-lot of old j-junk and broken t-things and g-garbage." She whimpered. "A-and I r-ran away to g-get back h-home but I don't know h-how…So much has c-changed…"

"What happened _before_ you woke up?" Mike asked, kneeling.

"I d-don't know…I only t-took a little n-nap…"

Mike looked at his watch and winced. "Well, listen, I've gotta get back to work. I'm going to be late as it is- do you want to come to the restaurant with me?"

Marionette looked at him pleadingly. "Yes, p-please."

"Alright, come on." He stood up and waited for her to get up and follow him, but she merely sat there in the grass looking helpless. "…What's wrong?"

"…I c-can't walk." She stammered.

He frowned. "Why not?"

"I don't k-know." She sniffed.

"Did you _drag_ yourself all the way here?"

Marionette didn't meet his gaze.

Mike sighed. "So be it." He leaned down and scooped her up and she gratefully snaked her arms around his neck.

"Thank you." She smiled sheepishly.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." He headed off again down the sidewalk, glad that Marionette didn't weigh the same amount as a regular human.

A foreshadowing autumn breeze swept through, bringing with it the promise of a new school year, colorful leaves, and marching band season. Soon enough, business would become slower as children abandon their careless summer activities to take on their academic subjects.

"…Little Mike?" Marionette whispered.

"What?" Mike frowned down at her.

"You're little Mike?" She asked, round eyed.

He smiled slightly. "You remember me?"

She nodded. "You're a lot…bigger now. And taller. And…grown up."

Mike nodded. "Yeah, it's been quite the topic lately." He raised his eyebrows.

Marionette's smile fell suddenly. "So much has changed…" She curled up somewhat fearfully.

Mike merely shrugged and continued walking. At this rate, he'd probably be fifteen or twenty minutes late. He winced wondering how that'd affect him…and his pay.

"Mike…?"

"What?"

"Did you ever become a pirate?"

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "No, I missed my chance….by a few millennia, actually."

"Oh…How long have you been a night guard?"

"After this week I think it'll be a month…I think."

"…Did the animatronics scare you?" A small, trouble making grin crossed her face.

Mike cast her a small frown, then smiled. "Yep. It broke my heart."

Marionette blinked. "Really?"

"Really."

"Why?"

"Because Foxy is my best friend and after a few years of not seeing him, it wasn't a very warm welcome to see my childhood friends trying to kill me." He raised his eyebrows.

"They were just trying to scare you." Marionette murmured, meekly.

"It worked."

"Do they scare you now?"

"No, not anymore." He smiled.

"Are you and Foxy friends again?"

"Yep."

Another autumn breeze swept through. Marionette shivered.

"It's cold out here."

"It's almost autumn." Mike said, smiling. "I love autumn days."

"And summer nights?"

He laughed. "C'mon, stop living in the 70's."

She giggled. "Never!" Her smile fell very suddenly as they came up to the restaurant. "That's not…home…"

"It's been remodeled." Mike explained, trying to grab his keys without dropping the fragile animatronic.

"It looks smaller…"

"Don't even worry about it." Mike said, fumbling with the keys. Marionette crawled up on his shoulders, and he was able to unlock the door. She slipped back into his arms as he opened the door and strode inside. The building was dark and quiet. Not even the light in the security guard's office was on.

"Hello?" He called.

"It's really different in here…" Marionette whispered.

"That's what happens when things are remodeled."

"Aye, Mikey! You're fifteen minutes late, lad!" Foxy hollered from farther inside. Mike smiled as he heard his friend's robotic footsteps heading towards him, and Foxy's crimson shape came into view. "I was startin' to get worried ye-" He stopped suddenly as he caught sight of the little animatronic in his arms. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Foxy!" Marionette reached her arms out to him.

"Ye had me worried lass, I thought ye'd been deactivated!" Foxy grinned, walked up and patting her head. "It's been years since I last seen ye!" He frowned. "Ye look like ye've been through a storm!"

"What's going on over there?" Freddy yelled from the depths of the restaurant.

"Oh wait 'til ye see what Mikey brought!" Foxy bellowed back with a laugh in his voice. "C'mon, lass." He beckoned to her.

"She can't walk." Mike explained.

"She can't?"

"She's been asleep for over ten years." He implied. "I found her by the park- she dragged herself there…looks awful tired too." He added as Marionette's eyes fluttered and she gave a little yawn. "Don't know why…she's been asleep so long."

"Hungry." Foxy said. "Yer in luck, we're just about to eat."

"Really?" Mike grinned.

"Been waitin' on you, actually." He clapped his friend on the shoulder and laughed, heading off into the shadows once more. Mike eagerly followed and soon enough the smell of food hit his nose. He gave a frown.

"That's not pizza."

"Nah, we decided we'd uh…pick somethin' up this ev'nin." Foxy cast him a sheepish grin.

Mike rolled his eyes. "You get an inch and you go a mile, don't you?"

The pirate laughed.

As the dining room came into view, lit up faintly, Mike saw Chica, Freddy, and Bonnie sitting at a table littered with food that was quite obviously not made in the pizzeria. Upon seeing Marionette in his arms, the three animatronics shot out of their seats with shouts.

"Marionette!"

"She's ALIVE?!"

"Where did she come from?!"

Marionette's eyes fluttered again. "Hello…"

As nearly a million questions and exclamations were thrown her way, Foxy held up his paw and his hook to silence everyone.

"Hold on, hold on!" He said. When the shouts died down he continued. "The lass is awful tired and hungry- give her a bit o' time to adjust to her new surroundins'."

"Looks like she won't be doing much 'adjusting' for a few hours."

Foxy turned to Mike, who raised his eyebrows at him, and saw that Marionette was fast asleep in his arms. Bonnie chuckled.

"What do I do with her?" Mike asked, shrugging.

The four animatronics exchanged glances and shrugs with each other.

"I would say you could probably put her in with Vincent…" Chica started. "But that seems like a bit of an…intense scene to wake up to."

Mike imagined waking up in a dark closet with a rotting corpse and a bloody animatronic suit. Remembering the smell of death and rotten blood, he shuddered.

"Well we can't just have her lying around her in the pizzeria." Freddy sighed, rubbing his forehead stressfully. "Other than Vincent's room, she's got nowhere to go….Unless…" Freddy looked at Mike. Slowly, the other three pairs of eyes in the room turned to look at him. Freddy smiled. Mike shook his head.

"No."

"Yes." Freddy nodded.

"She can't live with _me_!"

"Well she can't stay here!" Bonnie urged. "Not in a dark closet with a human CORPSE to keep her company!"

"So tell him to clean himself up! Clean his corpse out of the suit and mop up the evidence!" Mike retorted. "And put an air freshener in there it smells _horrible_."

"It'll only be for a little while." Freddy encouraged. "Just for a week at the most."

Mike scowled.

"It's not like she's a dog- she can take care of herself." Bonnie said.

"She can't even _walk_!"

"Give it a day or two, and she'll be fine."

Mike rolled his eyes. "Fine." He said. "Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine!" He glared at all of them. "One week."

The four in front of him sighed with a slight relief.

"Now where do I put her?"

Freddy shrugged. "In the office, I suppose."

Mike rolled his eyes and hiked up the hallway.

Upon returning to the table, he noticed that all the animatronics had something different about them. Foxy was wearing a big navy blue pirate's coat, and Chica was smiling happily in a lacy yellow dress.

"Where did you get that?" Mike asked, pointing to all of them.

"Oh this?" Foxy stood up with a grin. "Nothin' much. Got it the other day when we was walkin' ye home."

"More like _dragging_." Freddy raised an eyebrow at the guard.

The night guard flushed with embarrassment. "Where do you keep all that?" He nudged Foxy and gestured to his costume coat.

"In Vincent's room." Bonnie said.

"Sounds pleasant." Mike fell lazily into a seat at the table. "By the way," He added. "You all still haven't told me how you went outside of the restaurant and everything."

"It was easy." Freddy murmured. "We opened the doors and walked outside."

Mike rolled his eyes and the bear laughed.

"We left early so we'd have less of a chance of being caught or recognized." Freddy explained. "That and when we ran into a few people, they thought we were just humans in elaborate costumes."

"How did you know where I lived?" Mike asked, frowning at Freddy.

"Well ye told us ye lived near the park." Foxy shrugged.

"And we kind of assumed it'd be somewhere in the giant neighborhood that was pretty much right next to it." Freddy took a sip from his red plastic cup. "In all honesty, you're neighbors helped us out a bit, and so did your dog."

"Spike barked at you?" Mike chuckled. "And let me guess- Helen probably screamed at you for it."

Foxy nodded. "That's about it."

"You also broke one of my shot glasses." Mike quirked an eyebrow at the two.

Foxy gave a sheepish laugh. "Oh, that's what they were? I thought they was awful small for drinking glasses."

Mike sighed and rolled his eyes, slumping in his seat. A sudden memory arose in his mind just as Bonnie parted his jaws to speak.

"Melanie came by today," He said. "She wanted me to tell you all that she'll be away for a while."

"Why?" Chica asked, blinking with a frown.

"Her grandmother's sick and she needs to take care of her." Mike explained.

"Well I hope all goes well for her." The bird sighed. "It can be a bit scary, when a loved one is sick or hurt in that way."

When the clock struck six am, Mike collected Marionette (who was still asleep) and said his goodbyes to the animatronics. The edges of the dark, starry sky were beginning to be eaten away by the pale, vivid colors of dawn, and while the rest of the town would be waking up to start the day, Mike was tiring and heading to sleep.

Passing the park again, he yawned widely. Marionette stirred and her eyes fluttered open. She blinked at him. "…Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are we going?"

"My house."

"Why?"

"Because the others said you should stay there for a week."

"Why?"

"Because there's a lot to explain." Before she could ask another question, he yawned. "I'll tell you in the morning."

"…But Mike, it _is_ the morning." Marionette put in.

"I'll tell you after the thing." He shook his head.

"What thing?" she frowned.

Mike groaned."Give me about three hours." Shifting awkwardly to keep her from falling, he unlatched the gate to his house and slipped in before Spike could come running around the bend and make his grand escape. Lazily and carelessly heading into the house, he set Marionette on the sofa.

"Don't break anything." He told her. Before she could speak, he fell into the recliner, "See you in a few hours." And fell asleep.

**The more I write this story, the more I wish I could write Foxy with a sailor-mouth. But, incase mother mayhem happens to stumble across this, I can't do it. Like I said before, if you're annoyed by the way I depict Marionette- don't read this story. Alright I think that's all I have for this chapter. Comments and critiques are greatly appreciated and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. See you next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey HEY! A new week a new chapter- how neat is that? Alright the last chapter was kind of sort of boring- and I think this one might be too. Who knows? Ideas are hard to come by some times. Especially THIS time of the year…I might not have a chapter uploaded next week due to my personal stress problems. However, there should be some pretty smooth sailing after May, so that's something you can look forward to, I guess.**

Mike sat in his office clicking briefly through the cameras on his screen. Foxy was still hidden away in Pirate Cove, and the other three animatronics were lazily wandering through the dark halls in rooms, not yet much of a threat.

All of a sudden, the screen went dark, the buzzing light cut off, the fan stopped spinning. Everything went dark. Mike blinked. _How could the power have gone out so soon? _He thought, worry and uneasiness crawling through him.

The muffled _th-thunk _of an animatronic's footsteps came from the left hallway, steadily growing louder as they drew closer and closer to the night guard's office. Mike tensed and braced himself for whoever was coming towards him.

"Freddy?" He asked.

No answer.

"Bonnie…? Chica…? Foxy…?"

No answer.

"H-hello?"

There was a flicker of a shadow in the doorway, and a flash of dull yellow fur and blood.

"A-AAAHH!"

Mike opened his eyes and realized he was on the floor of his office. The light was still buzzing irritably, and he could still feel the soft breeze of the fan. He pushed himself off of the floor and climbed into his chair again, embarrassed that he'd fallen asleep on the job.

"You okay, Mike?"

"AH!" Mike jumped at Vincent stuck his head through the doorway. He clenched his fists. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry…"

Mike pushed the screen away from him and propped his elbow on the table, resting his head in his hand. "So you finally came out of the closet?"

"…" The ghostly glowing eyes didn't blink, but appeared to frown.

"I meant…" Mike waved his hand, too tired to elaborate his statement. "You're not locked up for good, you know."

"I guess."

"Are the other ghosts active or whatever?" He casually cast a cautious glance around the room.

"I don't know."

"Where's Foxy and them?" He frowned and went to turn on his cameras.

Vincent shrugged.

"Well I guess I better go find them." He stood up from his chair with a drowsy yawn. "What about you, what are you doing?"

"Walking around I guess."

"Think you might head on back to the closet or whatever?"

"I don't know, probably."

"Alright then." Mike tipped his hat towards the possessed suit and went to walk down the other hallway.

"Oh, Mike," Vincent started.

"Yes?" Mike turned around.

"There's a fire hazard out back."

"A what?" Mike stiffened.

"I don't know. It smells like smoke back there."

"Right…can you take me there?"

Vincent nodded and lumbered off through the darkness. Mike was surprised at how well the possessed suit could navigate, and rather intrigued by its construction.

"Why is the spring trap suit different?" He asked.

"Hm?"

"The suit your in…it looks…more like a costume than an animatronic suit."

Vincent nodded. "It was originally designed for a human to be able to get into- hence the five fingers- but it was still being developed. After a while, it became a dormant project."

"So why did you try and hide in the suit if you knew it was bugged?"

"…"

The scent of a rotting corpse began to mingle with the harsh reek of cigarette smoke as the two neared the back door. Vincent leaned against the wall.

"Right out here. I'd check it out myself, but if it's people on the other side of that door…we'd have a problem."

Mike nodded and opened the door. Three teenagers were standing outside with cigarettes clamped in between their fingers. They each were sporting a sweatshirt with a triangle formed by trumpets on them.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing out here?"

The kids jumped as Mike came out and yelled at them. As soon as they processed who he was, they made a run for it. Satisfied, the night guard slammed the door.

"That was easier than expected." He said. "I didn't know kids woke up at three in the morning to go out and smoke behind a children's place."

"I don't know."

Mike yawned and stretched, still drowsy from slacking off. "I better go check on Marionette to see if she's woken up yet."

"Marionette?" Vicent echoed, the ghost-possessed robotic eyes sparked with interest. "I thought she was deactivated."

"Yeah, so did we." Mike said, heading down the hallway again. "Apparently she was just in a coma for…twenty years."

"What's she like?" Vincent asked, following.

Mike cast him a glance.

"I mean after being asleep for twenty years, is she any different than she used to be?"

"As far as I can tell she's fit as a fiddle. She's jittery and had trouble standing on her own two feet for a while, but now for the most part she's okay. Just tired all the time: and hungry." He frowned and cast Vincent a sideways look."Out of curiosity, why do you ask?"

"I tampered with her memory after the murder and I wanted to know how much she remembers." He said honestly.

Mike didn't speak for a long moment, feeling incredibly awkward at the ghost's bluntness.

"Sorry, I didn't really know how to sugar coat that statement." Vincent rolled his shoulders as if to relieve himself of tension.

"Yeah, I know." Mike said, nodding. He thought of another thing to say, either to start a new topic, or to try to continue off of Vincent's statement with a question, but every sentence that came to him would most likely worsen the situation. Finally he gave up and looked at the bloody animatronic suit."I really don't know how to respond to that statement."

Vincent shrugged. "Neither do I." He twirled his thumbs. "I know this sounds weird…but even though I hate the man I was before…I kind of like myself now, without the mental disease."

Still unsure of what to say, the night guard merely nodded. "That's good."

Luckily, they were in the night guard's office again and Mike could change the subject. Marionette was just as he left her, asleep curled up under the desk. He'd offered her his chair, but she'd declined. When the two walked in, she lifted her head tiredly. She gave Mike a drowsy smile, but upon seeing the atrocious spring trap suit, her eyes widened.

"W-w-w-what…w-what is t-th…" She pointed at him with a trembling finger.

"It's just Vincent." Mike said casually. "He's in the suit."

Marionette's expression changed drastically from horrified to surprisingly resentful. Yanking the whirling fan from its plug in the wall, she rushed towards spring trap and started beating him with it.

"YOU SOULLESS, CROOKED, BAD, BAD MAN! HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A DREADFUL THING?! CHILDREN, I'LL SAVE YOU FROM THIS WICKED ABOMINATION! DIE VINCENT! DIE!"

"Marionette, stop!" Mike hauled her away from the ghost.

"N-nevermind." Vincent lumbered out of the room and down the hallway.

"C-c'mon- you like your ghost-self remember?" Mike called.

"Just kidding!" the spirit called back, his voice echoing.

"Mike, let me go!" Marionette grunted, struggling weakly against him. Her knees suddenly buckled beneath her and she stumbled onto the floor.

"Marionette, Vincent's already dead." Mike explained while she glared at him from the floor. "Long story short, he hid in spring trap's suit and it killed him. That's why it looks and smells so disgusting."

"Oh….He's still a psychopath!"

Mike rolled his eyes. "No he had a mental disease when he was alive- but now that he's dead he's normal….or about as normal as a ghost can be, at least."

Marionette blinked and crossed her arms. "I still don't forgive him yet."

"No one said you had to- I don't think anyone has, really, not even himself." Rushing footsteps behind him distracted his explanation.

"Ahoy, Mikey we're goin' to grab somethin' to eat, see ye in a bit!" Foxy yelled quickly, sprinting down the hallway with Bonnie.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Mike cried, heading after them.

Bonnie stopped at the front door, rolling his eyes. "What do you want, a goodbye kiss?"

"No-"

"Alright then, see you later." And they left.

Mike groaned. "I really need to set up some rules about them going on night adventures around the town."

"I'm confused." Marionette told him as he came back to the office. "Vincent's...a good guy now?"

"It's hard to explain…" Mike picked her up and put her on his shoulders. "I think Freddy and Chica would do better to give you the whole story."

"Okay." She said.

"…So I've been asleep for twenty years?" Marionette asked, sitting cross-legged in a chair across the table from Freddy. It'd taken a while to explain the full story to her.

Freddy nodded.

"And Fred, Bon, Chi, and Balloon Boy are all gone? And Mangle is…deactivated?"

Chic nodded. "That's right."

"And…I was supposed to be deactivated too?"

"But you're not- and that's what matters." Freddy told her quickly.

"…Right…" She hung her head. "Where are the others now?"

"They've got families." Chica smiled. "They're all very happy."

Marionette gave a small nod. "Where'd Jeremy go?"

"He quit." Freddy said. "A long time ago."

"…Do I even belong here anymore?"

Freddy and Chica exchanged a tight-mouthed glance. Then Freddy gave a small sigh, figuring it best to give her the straight, honest truth, no matter how much it might sting her. He looked at her with sympathy.

"No. There's nowhere for you to truly belong anymore. But if you want, you can stay with Vincent during the day and then wander around at night." He offered.

"I want to go h-home." Marionette said, looking at them morosely.

"Home isn't here anymore." Chica sighed. "It's twenty years away."

Mike watched the conversation from the wall. It was half an hour past the end of his shift and he was about to leave. Halfway through Freddy's explanation of all Marionette had missed, Foxy and Bonnie returned. When they saw what was going on, they stopped in their tracks and backed into the night guard's office, pretending not to exist and wanting no part in telling Marionette all of the negative news. Now, the night guard was starting to get impatient with their talk.

"Listen I don't mean to intrude on this optimistic pep talk here, but my shift's over." He looked at Marionette. "Are you coming with me or are you staying here?"

Marionette looked at Freddy. "If I stay here…do I have to stay in the closet with Vincent…? And not out with the children?"

"That's the way it has to be." Freddy nodded.

"I'll go with Mike."

Mike groaned inwardly, hoping that Marionette would learn to forgive and forget soon so he would have his house back to him and his dog. He merely nodded to the others and waved to Marionette.

"Come on then."

"…I still can't walk."

"Where are you going?" Marionette tilted her head at Mike. She was still sitting on the couch, wrapped up in a big blue blanket. Though her ability to walk had improved, she'd stayed there the whole night.

"To the restaurant." Mike said, putting his shoes on.

"Why? It's not time for you to work yet."

"I go there to help out a bit and talk to my coworkers." He explained.

"…Can I come?"

Mike frowned at her. "No." When she hung her head, he continued. "Just because you're supposed to be deactivated doesn't mean you can just wander around the world doing whatever you want- people would freak out."

"You don't freak out." She folded her arms.

"I did that about two weeks ago." He made for the door. "Stay here and don't break anything."

"Mike?"

"What?"

"Do you have a music box?"

Again, he stopped and frowned at her. "I used to a long time ago."

"…But not anymore…?" She slowly hung her head.

"Right."

"Oh…" She looked crestfallen.

Mike rolled his eyes. "If I happen to stumble upon a random music box I'll see what I can do for you, okay?"

"Okay." Marionette smiled.

Bonnie watched from the stage as Mike walked through the front door. He gave a wave to the three up on stage (even though he knew they couldn't wave back) and was immediately pulled into a conversation with Rex. Suddenly, the off-duty guard swallowed and headed into the manager's office.

Curiosity picked at ends of Bonnie's fur. Part of him wondered if it was good news, and a bigger part of him worried that someone had noticed that Netflix was randomly available on the television. He cast a nervous glance at Freddy.

If the bear had noticed something out of the ordinary- he certainly didn't show it. There was no sign that he saw something suspicious. But then again, it was always like that with Freddy: if something's wrong, he can cover it up. They'd _all_ had experience in that field...Bonnie often thought it was a little too _much_ experience.

After their song, however, Freddy turned on his heel and cast Bonnie a 'someone-sounds-sucky' look. "Someone's horribly out of tune."

"It's not me." Chica grinned. "We tuned together, remember?"

Freddy raised his eyebrows at Bonnie.

"Okay whatever I was out of tune, big deal." Bonnie rolled his eyes, raising his paws in defeat. "It's not like the kids know the difference- and Foxy isn't musically inclined…and I doubt Mike is."

"_What_ about me?"

Bonnie whirled around to see Mike standing in front of the stage, raising his eyebrows at him. The bunny shrugged."I said you're not musically inclined."

"As a matter of fact I am….somewhat." He grinned smugly.

"You played a musical instrument?" Chica asked, beaming excitedly.

"No. I took music theory my senior year of high school, though." Mike said.

"Why did you take music theory if you don't even play an instrument?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

"Because I needed to take some kind of arts class to graduate. I could've taken percussion but the school's drumline scared me."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, that'll happen." Then he remembered what he wanted to ask earlier. "So Mikey what did the boss man want?"

"He says that people have been complaining of a bad smell in certain parts of the restaurant and he wants me to check around for suspicious activity at night." Mike said. "He says he's worried 'it's happening again' but I don't know what that means."

"It means that the old mess in the closet is starting to make itself known." Bonnie said, jerking his head in the direction of Vincent's room.

"The last time people complained about a smell like that was when we have the rotting carcasses inside our suits with us." Freddy explained. "If I were him I'd be on edge too."

"Right…so we just gotta get Vincent to scrape himself out of that suit and we're good to go." Mike nodded, making a mental note.

"I don't know if he'll be too keen on that…" Chica said. "You know how he is…"

"I'm not going to lose my job because the ghost of some psychopath doesn't want to clean up his own mess." Mike folded his arms. "I would _appreciate_ it if you'd aid me in this."

"We can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do." Chica pointed out.

"If that corpse is found in there by some curious little kid I could get _fired_!"

"Good riddance." Bonnie grinned.

"…Mike got _fired_?" A voice made them all turn to see Foxy standing there behind Mike. His eyes were round with a sudden cheerlessness.

The three animatronics on stage quickly shook their heads and started rambling on explanations about what he walked into. Foxy blinked as three strings of senseless babble were thrown his way. He turned to Mike.

"I'm not getting fired I just need to get rid of Vincent's corpse before someone discovers it." Mike explained.

Foxy nodded and grinned. "Ye had me worried there, lad."

**This chapter is really short this time. I don't know why, I guess I just couldn't think of many interesting details to add into it. These few chapters are starting to get a little boring but eehh. It'll get better most likely. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright this chapter is probably going to be short and boring like the last one. To be honest, even though I have the entire fan fiction planned out the way I want it, I might take an entirely different route and have this really horrible ending that will probably make a lot of people very, very angry at me. But even with my stupid plan everyone's probably going to hate me- so it all works out the way I wanted. **

As Mike and Foxy headed off with each other, Freddy turned back to talk with the others. At this point Bonnie was taking Freddy's advice and tuning with Chica. He gave the bunny a smug look.

"What did I tell you?" He grinned.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fixing it." Bonnie rolled his eyes.

"Remember, we always want to perform to the best of our ability." Freddy said, straightening his posture regally.

"It's hard to do when we play the same-song-every-day." Bonnie stressed through gritted teeth.

"Then why don't we write our own songs?" Chica asked, grinning.

"No."

"Never."

Chica hung her head and folded her arms. "Just saying…"

"We already tried it, remember?" Freddy reminded her. "First of all, we could never agree on a melody or rhythm, _or_ lyrics together-"

"Because they sucked." Bonnie put in.

"And everything we could come up with was about us having a hard time doing our job every day…and…scaring the life out of the security guard." Freddy shook his head.

"That and everyone wanted to have the melody and no one wanted counter melody or the back parts." Bonnie added. "No one wants to hear that."

Chica folded her arms, discarding the rejected idea with slight frustration. "Darn." She fumed to herself, then a light bulb seamed to illuminate her eyes. "What about Marionette's music box? We could take that tune, add some lyrics and back parts to it, and spin it into a song!"

Freddy wrinkled up a thoughtful denial and Bonnie merely shook his head.

"We don't have Marionette's music box anymore, it was thrown out." Bonnie rolled his eyes, tiring of having to explain it all again. He was about to elaborate more on the topic when Foxy and Mike walked up to the three, butting into the conversation.

"Hey guys, I'm leaving for now," Mike said. "But I'll be back at 12."

"You do this every day, we don't care."

Mike rolled his eyes and waved, heading off.

"Love you, Mike." Bonnie said, leaking sarcasm like a cracked pipe and twirling his fingers.

"Who doesn't?" The night guard called back, blandly.

"Who are you talking to, Mike?" Clove asked him.

Mike turned and blinked at her. Throwing a glance at the animatronics, he scowled at them as they all exchanged snickers. "No one." He told Clove, rolling his eyes and leaving the building.

It was a sunny, summer day and Mike saw no better opportunity to share it with his greatest friend, Foxy. They'd spent the day wandering aimlessly around a large city and were now heading back to the pizzeria having yet to cross a large bridge that connected them to their destination. As they crossed it, Mike looked over the edge. What looked like a million feet below them, a massive river was roaring, churning angrily and spitting white foam.

A dark blur in the water caught Mike's attention. He leaned down to get a better look, gripping the bridge guard walls tighter. The concrete he leaned on shifted, the rock crumpled, and he plummeted from the bridge, letting out a soundless wail. He reached up, begging that his friend would do something, anything, to save him from his fate.

But instead of Foxy's face looking down on him, Mike saw the face of Springtrap staring at him as fell and fell, soon to come crashing into the foamy, roaring torrent beneath him. He could hear the growling, rumbling water in his ears becoming louder and louder…

He blinked. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in an empty, stretching, flat plain of land with short, trimmed, pale green grass. In front of him was a golden ladder with a black rose sprouting next to it. Mike looked up the ladder (which had nothing to support it, except for the ground) and saw it extending high up into the sky- so high, in fact, that it disappeared into the crisp, clear blue.

Confused, he looked around. There was no river, or bridge, or Springtrap anywhere in sight. He swallowed as he looked at the sprouting rose again. He was dead. This ladder was the gateway to his afterlife. Dismally, he looked around him again. He was utterly alone. Not even Foxy was there with him. Didn't he get to say goodbye? Or at least, take one last look at the world he called home? _I don't want to die..._ With a heavy heart, he gripped the ladder and began his ascent.

Mike opened his eyes to the frustrating buzzing of his alarm clock. He'd been dreaming the entire time. Even so, the dream had left him feeling uneasy and still a bit downcast. He turned off his alarm clock and called to his dog. The Doberman trotted lazily into the room with a wide yawn, but managed to wag his stubby tail anyway, always happy to see his owner. Mike patted his head with a smile.

"Good morning, Spike."

"Hey, where's Vincent I need to go get him to get rid of his corpse." Mike said, walking up to the four animatronics who were gathered around a table in the dining room. They all cast him lazy glances before returning their attention to their card game.

"In his room where he always is, where else?" Bonnie asked, frowning at him.

"I was just- never mind." Mike rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any 4's?" Chica asked Foxy.

"Go fish." He replied, scanning his deck of cards.

"Alright well I'm gonna go to talk to Vincent." Mike turned on his heel and headed to the hallway with the dark room and the rotten body. He stopped and paused, then turned around to look at his friends, still absorbed in their game. He stared at them. Then tapped his foot and crossed his arms.

"What?" Freddy asked, looking up and catching sight of him.

"I'm waiting!"

"For what?" Bonnie turned around with a half-chuckle and glared at him.

"Aren't you coming with me?"

"No?" The bunny exchanged frowning looks with Freddy. "Why would I want to?"

"This is supposed to be an intervention!"

"What the he- no it's not!"

"Yes it is! Foxy, back me up!"

"I want to part in this." Foxy didn't look up from the cards in his hands.

Mike threw up his hands in frustration and turned around.

"Let us know how it goes." Bonnie said, resuming the game once more. "Whose turn is it?"

"Foxy's."

"Fine, then!" Mike stormed off, slightly fuming, but his feelings of anger were quickly replaced with unease as he caught the scent of death. He stopped at the door that lead to a dead body and took a deep breath. He knocked on the door and peeked in. The horrible, muggy reek of decay swamped him.

"Vincent?" He asked.

There was no answer.

Very cautiously, Mike ventured farther into the room. "Vincent? You in here?"

Suddenly a pale yellow face and glowing eyes swung into view- upside down.

Mike jumped as he processed that Springtrap was hanging upside down in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm in here."

As Mike's eyes adjusted to the light, he could make out the full shape of the animatronic hanging from a bar in the ceiling. Were all of the roofs in this place oddly built?

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Mike said, still surprised.

"Sorry." The robot's dull yellow arms hung loosely and carelessly from the rest of his body "You needed something?"

"No offense, but people have been complaining of a bad smell in the restaurant and I think your corpse has something to do with it." Mike said, bluntly, not sure how to sugar coat the topic. "Do you think you could maybe…go out back and…clean it out?"

"Yeah." Vincent disappeared from sight and in a surprisingly swift movement, landed on the floor with a _thunk_. "I need a shovel."

"IT'S OUT BACK BEHIND THE DUMPSTER!" Chica yelled back to them.

"Okay." Vincent walked past Mike, almost causing the night guard to faint with the smell of rotten blood. "I'll be back in probably an hour."

Despite everything that Mike was thinking inwardly, he gave the ghost a small smile. "Do you need any help?"

Vincent paused and looked back at him. "No, you do not want to help."

Mike gave a forced laugh. "Yeah…okay. See you in an hour then."

"Yep." The dull-colored animatronic lumbered off outside.

The night guard headed into the dining room again, glad to be rid of the awful stench. The others were still busy with their game, but now six others had joined the party. Marionette was sitting at the table with her own deck of cards, swinging her legs in her chair. Each of the players had a ghost looking over their shoulder. Again feeling uneasy, Mike walked up to them.

"What're we doing?" He asked.

"We as in not you," Bonnie started with false regality. "Are doing the same things we were doing prior to your absence."

"I played this game in kindergarten." Said the pale ghost of Chris.

"Me too!" Laura smiled.

"Can I play?" Mike asked, sitting into the chair across from Marionette.

"No." Bonnie said bluntly. "Foxy do you have any 5's?"

"Ah, ssshhh-" the pirate caught sight of Freddy's raised paw out of the corner of his eye. "Sweet honey iced tea."

"Why not?" The night guard asked.

"Because we already have more than enough players. And we hate you." Bonnie explained, causing John and Paul to snicker.

"C'mon, you guys are like my only friends." Mike said.

"That's because all of your other friends _graduated_ high school." This earned a laugh from Freddy and Bonnie added "Stay in school, kids."

"Shut up!" Mike grabbed a few spare cards and formed them neatly in his hands. "I'm in the game now."

Bonnie smacked Mike's hand, causing the cards to float away. "Not anymore."

Jess floated through the table and appeared in front of Mike. "Mr. Night guard, will you turn the TV on for us?"

"Okay." Mike abandoned his attempt to play cards and stood up from the table.

"I don't know Chica, are you sure he knows how to use the TV remote?" Bonnie asked, grining.

"Shut up!" He laughed, turning on a movie and joining the table again.

"Mike, what did I tell you about joining the game?"

"I'm not doing anything!"

Marionette smiled. "I haven't played cards with you guys in a really long time."

"Yeah, that's a plus." Chica said. "We can laze around and do whatever we want because we're not trying to scare the life out of the night guard." She cast Mike a smile.

"Why do you do that, anyway?" He asked. "Try and petrify me like that?"

"It's fun." Freddy shrugged. "The instructions you're left by the phone guy make us seem like killing machines so we thought it'd be humorous to live up to the title."

"Hey what happened to the phone guy? He died?"

"Yeah, we think he went off the deep end."

"Did what?" Mike frowned.

"We think he saw the ghosts and freaked out…too much."

"Why?"

"We don't really know…sometimes we wonder if he was an aid to Vincent and his crimes, but in the end we just assume he's a worry wart who thought the ghosts were trying to get their revenge or something." Freddy shuffled his cards. "It's…sort of obvious he took his own life."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know that. I kind of thought the last two messages were some kind of prank. I didn't know it was some messed up kind of thing like that."

"Isn't knowledge wonderful?" Bonnie faked a smile.

"Is anyone still playin' this?" Foxy asked, looking around.

"No, Mike ruined the game with his ignoramus self."

"What does that word mean?" Mike frowned.

"It means 'uneducated', you beauty school drop out."

"Shut up!"

Chica looked up quickly with a frown. "You went to _beauty_ _school_?"

Bonnie laughed loudly.

"No!"

"But I thought Bonnie just said-"

"HE WAS BULLYING ME!"

Freddy and Marionette laughed.

"Foxy you're pretty quiet today." Marionette said, glancing at the pirate.

The pirate yawned. "I'm tired, lass." He smiled.

"Foxy's been going back into sleep mode almost every night after you leave." Chica said to Mike."Or…every morning, I should say."

"Why?" The night guard asked, trying to recollect his cards again.

"I'd forgotten how…refreshin' it is." Foxy said through yawns.

Mike yawned in response. "Stop yawning."

Chica laughed. "Now that we don't have Jeremy, Bon, Fred, and Chi-chi with us, we could actually get some sleep if we wanted to."

"That's true." Freddy gave a yawn. "We couldn't even get five minutes of sleep with those three."

"Three? You mentioned four people." Mike frowned.

"Well Jeremy wouldn't have been a part of it if it weren't _for_ Fred, Bon, and Chi." Bonnie roughly explained.

"I'm still confused."

"When aren't you?"

Freddy rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. The other three animatronics at the table gave a soft groan and all leaned back in their seats, preparing for a lecture.

"Way to go, Mike." Bonnie hissed

The bear ignored him. "Back at the old place, when Jeremy was our night guard, we found that he was a little bit…skittish."

"And by skittish he means absolutely and completely terrified all the time, every minute, every day, ever." Bonnie said.

"See the thing with Jeremy," Foxy yawned. "He paid too much attention to the lil' tapes on the phone. Paranoid, Jeremy was."

"And the toy animatronics thought it would be a brilliant idea to live up to the name." Freddy said.

"So basically…they just scared the crap out of him?" Mike asked.

Freddy gave a thoughtfully denying look. "Not exactly…You see, there were no doors for the night guard's office back at the old place, and Fred, Bon, and Chi took things a little…extreme…"

"_Hi, there, Jeremy!" Bon said cheerfully, waving at the night guard and peeking in at him through the bear mask he was wearing. "I haven't seen you before, is it your first night on the job?"_

"_Y'know, Bon-bon, he doesn't seem all that excited to be here with us..." Chi said, tapping her beak with a feather._

"_Indeed." Fred said. "As a matter of fact, he looks the exact opposite of happy."_

_Bon straightened his bowtie. "Well, I guess we'll have to change that, now won't we?" He leaned in closer to the guard. _

"_See the thing that confuses ME is why he's wearing that mask if he's so scared of us?" Fred raised his eyebrows. "It looks like he's quite eager to get back into his costume where he belongs…."_

"_C-C-Costume?" Jeremy stammered behind the mask._

"_Well of course, silly!" Chi tipped the bear mask off of his face, revealing a terrified night guard staring at them with wide, round eyes. "All endoskeletons have to stay in their costumes…you know that…don't you, Jeremy?"_

"_In fact, we have a costume made just for you." Bonnie smiled devilishly. _

"_Say, Bon-bon, he looks a little worried about all this." Fred joined them with a smirk. "Maybe we should give him a helping hand…after all, he is our _friend…"

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The terrified wail echoed through the walls of the family restaurant. _

_Freddy, who was busy winning a game of poker with Bonnie, Foxy, Mangle, and Chica, stood up quickly, clenching his fists. He turned to the direction of where he'd heard the scream, and marched down the hallway angrily. As he neared them, he saw Bon and Chi, each gripping one of Jeremy's arms, and Fred supporting the guard's feet. The three were carrying the sobbing, struggling man with cheery faces and chants. _

"_No! No! I don't want to die!" Jeremy sobbed, tears streaming down his face._

"_WHAT ARE YOU _DOING_?!" Freddy bellowed angrily._

_Bonnie put a finger to his bolted mouth. "Sh!" He grinned. To the others he beamed with cheer. "Come on, guys, Jeremy's not going to put himself into that costume!"_

"_NOOOOOOO!" The night guard moaned, trembling._

_The three toy animatronics snickered, trying to hold back their howls of laughter. They hoisted him up higher and headed farther towards the back room, continuing to sing their creepy chant._

"And then he'd end up in a dress or dancing or something weird like that." Freddy said, shuffling his cards. "They never hurt him, just traumatized him until he started crying and then forced him to do something embarrassing."

"Wait a minute." Mike interrupted.

"Oh, here we go."

"I don't remember Bonnie being around often at the old place. I remember he'd appear once or twice, but it was mostly Toy Bonnie that was around all the time."He rubbed the back of his head. "What was up with that?"

"Unlike the rest of the animatronics, they only made one face that Bonnie and Bon kind of, sort of had to share." Chica shrugged. "It was really, really difficult. Eventually another face was made so they didn't have to keep remodeling it all the time."

"That sounds complicated."

"It was." Bonnie nodded. "The faceless one was hanging out in parts and service the whole time. It's a wonder you didn't see-" He quickly cut himself off as everyone at the table stared at him with wide eyes and wildly shaking heads. Mike, who was shuffling his cards, didn't see the panic.

"See what?" He asked. "I was always in Pirate Cove with Foxy."

"Aye, but the 'secret entrance' to Pirate Cove was right next to the door to parts and service- and that door was always open." Foxy put in quickly, answering the question just as Bonnie had opened his mouth to make up another white lie.

"Really? I didn't remember that…"

The animatronics scowled at Bonnie, who glowered back and mouthed 'I DON'T CARE'.

"Then again," Mike chuckled. "I was an idiot lil' kid back then."

"Yeah, you were dumb." Bonnie said.

Chica smacked him on the head from across the table, giving him a half-angry smile.

"Love you too, Bonnie." Mike rolled his eyes, looking at all of them fully now and just missing the fiasco.

"Are we gonna' finish this game now?" Foxy asked, raising his deck of cards.

"Come to think of it, there were a lot of 'Employees Only' signs around that door." Mike said, frowning and trying to pull back memories from his childhood.

Again, the animatronics tensed, exchanging glances.

"I miss the old place." Marionette said quietly. "I liked being around the children."

"Yeah," Chica said. "There were a lot more things for kids to do, back then."

"And even the employees were more warmer towards us…" Bonnie trailed off again as Chica, Freddy, and Foxy turned and stared at him again with outraged expressions of which Mike and Marionette were oblivious to.

"Well gee thanks, guys!" Mike laughed, to only be ignored by the others.

Marionette chuckled quietly, then abandon her cards with a slight yawn. "I think I'm gonna go back to the office and take a nap."

The five waited until the little animatronic was out of earshot, watching her until she turned the corner and vanished. Once she was gone, several robot hands shot out and gave Bonnie a good smack on the head or shoulder.

"What is _with_ you today?" Chica hissed.

"If that was a joke, it wasn't funny." Freddy glowered.

"I forgot, okay! I was just talkin' about Hannah, and Jack, and all of those other employees I wasn't talking specifically about-

"SSHHH!" The three hissed.

"What?" Mike looked up with a frown.

"We'll tell you later." Freddy said. "Maybe."

He rolled his eyes and threw up his cards. "You don't tell me anything."

"I guess we're not playin' anymore." Foxy threw his cards onto the table and stuffed his arms behind his head, leaning back.

Chica got up and headed for the stage. "I'm gonna try to write a song."

"Good luck with that- no one else is going to cooperate." Bonnie said, following her and sitting on the stage while she played simple chords on the keyboard.

As Chica went through the twelve major scales, Freddy jumped up from his seat. "No, no, no! You can't play them in _that_ order!"

Mike threw back his head, bored. "How come whenever I try to join the group it always breaks up?"

"If you're bored, Mike, why don't you go get your toy sword and play pirate?" Bonnie asked, smirking.

"Shut up."

Foxy snickered, holding back a laugh.

Mike frowned. "You guys are a bunch of di-"

Freddy turned on his heel. "SAY IT MIKE SCHMIDT. FINISH THAT WORD. I DARE YOU."

Mike tightened his jaw.

The bear nodded and went back to his conversation with Chica and Bonnie. Marionette returned back into the room with a yawn and sat down with the ghost children, who welcomed her with smiles.

"Don't worry about it, lad, I have trouble with me sailor-mouth as well." Foxy said with a smile, slinging his arm around his friend.

Mike shrugged. He watched the five children staring with their eyes glued to the screen, knowing that in about twenty minutes, they're most likely to abandon the film to run around-or float around- playing some made up game. He frowned as a thought occurred to him that hadn't before.

"Where was the fifth body?" Mike asked. "There's five children, but you said the bodies were found in you, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie."

Foxy nodded grimly. "Paul's body was found in an old golden Freddy suit. It was in the back o' parts n' service. Since our memories had been tampered with, none of us really remembered the exact number of kids murdered. It wasn't until Marionette found the fifth body that we remembered."

The night guard shuddered. "That sounds terrifying."

"Aye, it was. But now the ghosts seem fine for the most part." Foxy smiled at them.

"I guess it must be tough for Vincent- his whole life on earth his true self has been locked away in his diseased shell." Mike looked at Foxy, feeling uneasy again. "I wonder how many other people are like that."

Foxy shrugged in a sympathetically grim way. "Many, I reckon."

"Tag! You're it!" Jess shouted, tapping John on the shoulder. The ghosts all beamed and soared away from him.

"That's kind of sad, that you don't know who you really are until you're dead." Mike nodded.

"I imagine a good number of ghosts struggle with it." Foxy agreed. He then smiled. "But look at the bright side-Vincent's no longer a threat to anyone, and the children, though they're ghosts, are in a relatively safe environment." He watched as John shoved Laura and fled, laughing.

"Yeah, I guess." Mike chuckled. "That and I still get to hang around with you losers." He playfully shoved his friend.

Foxy laughed. "Aye, that too."

Chris and Paul floated away from Laura, giggling. As Chris took a left, Paul turned and looked behind him, unintentionally floating right into Mike.

The night guard stumbled as the ghost disappeared into him.

"You alright, Mikey?" Foxy asked, clapping him on the shoulder with a smile.

Mike gagged and choked as if something was lodged in his throat. He gripped his chest and stumbled again, shuddering.

"Guys, something's wrong with him!" Marionette snapped her head around to stare. The three other animatronics on the stage turned and slowly abandon their equipment and looked on in concern.

Shaking, Mike collapsed on the ground, supported by shuddering arms. He choked and sputtered, but the others had no clue as to what was happening to him. With a final cough, he fell limp on the ground. The ghost children stopped playing. The three animatronics stared. Marionette shuddered. Foxy trembled, looking at the body with round eyes.

An echoing, eerie, inhuman wail resonated through the walls of the restaurant, and a shadow writhed on the wall. Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy nearly jumped out of their suits. A little switch in their memory units cut itself on at the sound that twisted their gears sickly. This wasn't the first time they'd heard something like that.

Apparently, one other recognized the noise as well. Vincent burst through the back door and sprinted through the pizzeria until he was in the dining room. The three by the stage were frozen to the spot. The four remaining ghost children were covering their eyes and ears, looking horrified and haunted. Marionette, too horrified to speak, whispered something inaudible and fainted. Foxy was shaking- his metal clanking.

"M-m-m-m-" He stammered, unable to form words.

The unnatural shriek died down into inhuman, mangled moans and the writing shadow on the wall twisted sickly. The night guard's body shuddered and his eyes opened widely, filled with shadows. He was shaking; all the color had drained from his face.

"Paul," Vincent started, raising two hands that were messy with dirt and a brown-black ooze. He smelled like mud and rot. "Come on out of there."

The fallen man stretched out a quivering hand.

"No, no. Come on, Paul." Vincent beckoned. "Out you go."

When the guard went limp again, a pale shape began to rise from it. As Paul's ghost drifted towards Vincent, looking very much confused, the moaning, writhing shadow on the wall began to quiet down and disappear. The still body coughed and stirred. Mike propped himself off of the ground with shaking arms and Foxy quickly hauled him to his feet.

Vincent looked at the ghosts. "No more rough housing around Mike. Alright, kids?" As the children nodded eagerly, he smiled at Paul. "Why don't you go play with them?"

"Okay!" Paul grinned and went back to join his friends, who were still casting frightened looks at the man who was stumbling on his own two legs, looking horrified of the event and confused as to why Foxy was hugging him so.

"W-what happened?" Mike asked, looking around. "Something weird…I thought I'd just..."

"Maybe you should take a break." Chica said, abandoning the music equipment to assist the night guard.

"M-maybe I should…okay…"

As Foxy and Chica helped Mike walk down the hallway towards the night guard's office, Bonnie and Freddy wandered over to Vincent, who was watching the ghosts float around the room aimlessly murmuring amongst themselves and eventually settling down in front of the television again.

"So that was horrifying." Bonnie pasted on a fake smile.

"And confusing…" Freddy rubbed his chin and threw a glance at Vincent. "I thought humans only screamed like that when they're dead? How is he still alive?"

"Humans don't scream like that- their souls do." Vincent started. "And as a matter of fact no, a human's soul will scream only if they've been killed or murdered by another human being. Otherwise they die in…relative peace, depending on the situation."

"But when you died-"

"My foolish actions caused for my demise, and as my soul was devoid from my brain, I was technically killed by another human being."

"That's deep." Bonnie said.

"So Mike _was_ dead?" Freddy asked, trying to drive the conversation back to where it started.

"No, he just had his shell unintentionally stolen from him by Paul." The dull yellow animatronic shrugged. "Since his soul coincides with the rest of his body, the outcome was the same as if he'd been killed."

Freddy nodded. "Will he be okay?"

"He'll be traumatized, most likely, but I think he'll be fine…as long as none of the other ghosts try to shove him out of his shell again."

"I don't think that'll be a problem." Freddy nodded.

"Strange…I'd think a person's soul would put up a fight to an intruder…" Vincent shrugged. "Alright, I need to go finish this up." He gestured to the front of his suit, where a gaping hole in the fur and animatronic material was leaking old human flesh and human bones.

Bonnie and Freddy wrinkled their noses and gave him a nod.

"One more thing," He added as he headed towards the back door. "Check on Marionette, I think she's a little more traumatized than the rest of us." He picked up the shovel and headed out the door again.

"Right…" Freddy and Bonnie rushed over to where Marionette lay and began fanning her, trying to wake her up again.

"Feeling any better, lad?" Foxy asked Mike, who was sitting in the chair in the night guard's office, still quivering.

"A bit." He said, giving a weak smile.

"Good thing Vincent was there," Chica said. "Otherwise Paul might've been stuck somewhere he didn't belong."

"Yeah…I wonder if Marionette's okay?" Foxy cast a glance out the window. "I'm sure hearin' that scream probably brought back some unwelcome mem'ries."

"I bet."Chica sighed. "Probably broke her heart all over again."

"I'm confused." Mike frowned. He rubbed his forehead. "Do you hear that ringing?"

"Probably from you screaming."

"That was me?" He flushed.

Chica nodded. "It's okay; all humans do that when they die. The kids did it; Vincent did it- that's why it probably scared Marionette so much."

"She knew the kids well, then?" Mike asked. "They came here often?"

"No, not really."

"I thought you said it 'broke her heart'?"

"Well yeah, it was a traumatizing event." Chica shrugged. "It'd break anyone's heart, really."

"Obviously." Mike leaned back in his chair. "I guess I have to give you some credit, you all seem to really know the meaning of 'forgive and forget'."

Chica gritted her teeth and smiled. "It's not as easy as it looks!"

"It really isn't." Foxy nodded. "'Specially when yer comin' to find out that the person ye hate really didn't know what they was doin' the whole time. But ye still hate 'em."

"What about the kids? They hate him too?"

Chica and Foxy exchanged a look and shrugged. "I don't really know. I think they're just confused half the time. After all, they were only five or six when they were killed. They'll probably hate him eventually."

"Interesting."

"You know, sometimes you almost want to feel bad for Vincent…but then you just can't." Chica chuckled.

"Where do I put the shovel?"

They all snapped their heads around to the doorway where Springtrap was standing. The bloody mess had been removed from his fur- which was sopping wet- and he almost seemed good as new.

"Behind the dumpster." Chica said with a blink.

"Is it rainin' out?" Foxy asked.

"No, I went into the retention pond."

"How did you dry off?"

"I walked in circles and stood around outside for an hour."

"Sounds boring."

The dull yellow animatronic shrugged and lumbered off. "Your shift ended fifteen minutes ago, Mike." He called back to them.

"Oh," Mike squinted at the clock. "So it did."

Chica blinked. "Do you think I offended him?"

Foxy raised an eyebrow. "Who cares?"

Mike laughed. "Good point." He rose from the chair and stumbled. "Well I think I'll head home. It was great being traumatized, thanks, by the way."

They nodded at him. "Anytime."

**So I'm kind of running out of ideas for this. I have the ending laid out flawlessly, but if I want everything to go as planned, I'm going to need good crap to throw together in the middle. But that's obviously most likely probably not going to happen, considering there's already so much stuff in this story that is so incredibly cheesy you need a glass of wine to get through chapter one. And the story summary. So yeah. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry about the delay in posting the last chapter, I had stuff goin on. Vacations and all that. **

Freddy looked around the pizzeria for any signs of Mike, wondering how the night guard was handling after being traumatized. But to his slight disappointment, he was nowhere in sight.

"What're you thinking about?" Bonnie asked, climbing off of the stage with him. "You've got that look in your eye."

"Just wondering if Mike was coming in today." Freddy said.

Bonnie rolled his eyes. "He's probably taking the day off. If I were you I'd be more worried about Marionette."

An almost queasy feeling swept through Freddy. "Yeah, you're right." His gaze traveled over towards the hallway with the hidden room. Since Marionette was still fainted at the time Mike left, she'd had to stay the rest of the night in the pizzeria…and she'd have to spend all day in the hidden room. Alone. With Vincent. Chica had already checked on them once, and the awkward tension in the room was sparking enough to set off fireworks.

"It's been another hour…One of us should probably run in there and check on them." Freddy rubbed the back of his head. "It'd be easier if Mike was here… Is Foxy still in Pirate Cove?"

"Yeah, Rex's been trying to wake him up all morning."

"Alright…I'll run down there and tell Rex to take a load off and tell Foxy to check in on Marionette before coming out here." He said.

Bonnie frowned in surprised confusion. "Rex _knows_…? About…?"

"Eh…" Freddy tilted his hand and gave a thoughtfully denying look. "Rex is so-so."

The bunny shrugged and headed off.

Looking around to see where every employee was, Freddy slipped out of the room and down the hallway to Pirate Cove. As he did, he could hear Rex's frustrated voice bargaining with the lazy pirate.

"Listen, I have a job to do, you have a job to do. I have to wake up when I don't want to; you have to wake up when you don't want to. It's how work works."

Foxy groaned from behind his violet curtains. "Away with ye!"

As Freddy approached, Rex turned and started, frowning in a concerned way. "What are you doing down here?"

"Is he giving you trouble?" Freddy asked, smiling and ignoring Rex's question.

"Uh…sort of?"

"I ain't doin' nothing!" Foxy growled, making Rex squint.

Freddy resisted an eyeroll. "I'll take care of him. You go on back to join the party again, alright?"

Rex frowned in deep confusion. "Okay?" Hesitantly, he left, throwing multiple glances over his shoulder. Once he was out of sight, Freddy spoke to Foxy.

"Listen, Foxy, I need you to go over and check on Marionette for me, alright?"

"No."

Freddy frowned. "N-no? What do you mean 'no'? You're a team player, I need you to do your part!"

"I'm takin' a day off."

Freddy sighed. "You and Mike both…"

"More of a reason for me to stay in here."

Freddy groaned. "Alright. Fine. I'll go check on them. Can you just get up and do your job?"

The violet curtains parted and Foxy walked out, yawning and stretching. "I deserve a day off."

"How about Saturday?"

Foxy shoved him with a sleepy grin. "Funny. I'll be out there doin' the…y'know…" He yawned.

"Talking to the children?" Freddy finished his statement.

"Aye, that'd be it."

"Right…" Freddy rolled his eyes and headed down the hallway with his friend. The two parted ways and as Foxy headed into the vividly lit, joyous majority of the pizzeria, Freddy headed into the one patch of darkness the restaurant held. Checking to make sure no eyes were watching, Freddy hooked his paw onto the hidden latch and drew back the sliding door to the hidden room.

Marionette and Vincent were still in there, facing each other and slumped against opposite walls. As Freddy opened the door, they turned to look at him. Freddy braced himself as an awkward, tense atmosphere leaked out of the room like icy sea water- and he was the Titanic.

"How are you guys doing in here?" He asked, pasting on a cheerful smile.

"Bored." Marionette scowled.

"Did the smell go away?" Vincent asked, gesturing himself. The spring trap suit, apart from having loose wires, missing parts, and being nearly torn apart, looked good as new. The light yellow fur looked and soft and the glowing eyes looked almost friendly. No one would've ever thought there was formerly a corpse inside…they would just think it seriously overdue for a tune up.

"Yes actually." Freddy gave him a thumbs up. "You look…almost as good as new. Which is much better than you used to look."

"Can I go out and see the children?" Marionette asked hopefully.

"No. You have to stay here for…" Freddy threw a glance behind him at the happily decorated clock on the wall. "About 7 more hours."

"Are you KIDDING me?"

"It's not so bad." Vincent said, eyes fixed on the floor.

At once the awkward tension in the room grew noticeably; the icy water got colder and rose up a few feet.

"Well glad you two are getting along like old times, so sorry you have to be locked up here, I've got a job to do, see you later, bye!" Freddy closed the door before Marionette could speak again. He shuddered, trying to keep the awkward sea water from clinging to his fur.

"I wish we had something to do other than sit here and do nothing…" he heard Marionette complain through the door.

"There's a deck of cards on the shelf." Vincent said.

"…I hate playing cards."

"You used to love it, or at least I thought you did…"

"Yeah well…things change."

_I'm out. _Freddy sped down the hallway, chest and stomach out as if avoiding a chasing wave of cold water. He marched out into the normal cheer of the pizzeria and sighed in content. Feeling better amongst the warm friendliness the room had to offer, he made a beeline for Bonnie, who was talking to a group of kids by the stage.

"…Is it hard to play the guitar?" A little boy asked him, shooting a glance at the gleaming guitar on the stage.

"Not really." Bonnie shrugged, giving his instrument a prideful grin. "It's easy once you learn how to read music, dynamics, understand the weird Latin words like 'allegro', and know everything about your instrument ever." He grinned as he saw Freddy. "Hey Fred-bear how's it going?"

"We need another closet."

Bonnie laughed.

A little girl tugged on Freddy's arm. "Freddy what's the highest note you can sing?"

He smiled at her. "I don't know, and I don't want to find out."

Bonnie leaned back against the stage. "So how're they doing?"

"Not happy. If 'awkward' was an air freshener, that room's got an overdose." Freddy shuddered again.

A little girl whispered to her friend. "What does 'awkward' mean?"

Bonnie continued his conversation with Freddy while the two children bickered over the concept. "I don't blame Marionette for being sour. I'd be pretty awkward having no one to talk to but _Vincent_ for 8 ½ hours. He's not exactly the best at conversation, if you know what I mean."

"Well, not only that but what are you supposed to _say_? 'So, Vincent, how do you like being dead? Is it better than being alive?' No, no one wants to ask that or know the answer and I don't think Vincent wants to get into that either."

Bonnie nodded. "I think the worst part is…" He trailed off as his eyes fell on the front entrance. "Is that…?"

"What?" Freddy turned and nearly jumped out of his suit as two very familiar faces walked through the front entrance of the pizzeria each with a child by their side. Without thinking, his paw shot up to waved them over. "Hey! Fred! Bon!"

The two old, toy animatronics turned their heads and grinned as they caught sight of him. Each spoke something to the child they were with and headed briskly over to see their old friends. Bonnie gripped Bon's hand and shook it heartily, grinning. The children looked from the toy animatronics to the ones they were used to in great confusion, but were quickly distracted as Chica came out of the kitchen carrying pizza.

"What're you doin' here?" Bonnie asked.

Fred shrugged. "The family was busy and asked us to take the kids here." He grinned. "And we came to see you old fossils."

Freddy beamed. "Well it's great to see you." He said. "What's it like, by the way, living with a family?"

"It's pretty nice, actually." Bon shrugged. "I think it's funny whenever guests come over and they look at us like we're the weirdest thing planet earth has to offer."

"But enough about us," Fred raised an eyebrow. "We wanna hear about how things have been _here_."

"Pretty intense, lately." Bonnie took a deep breath.

"The ghosts are still here?" Bon asked grimly, shooting dark glances around him.

"Yes…there's six now." Freddy said.

"_Six_? Don't tell me another child's been murdered…"

"No…let's just say Vincent got what was coming to him." Bonnie said darkly.

The two toy animatronics leaned in, intrigued.

"He was wandering around here a few weeks ago, found the old spring trap suit in a hidden room not even _we_ knew about. Laura's ghost scared him. He put the suit on and…well…remember how they always said Springtrap had a few 'construction' errors?"

"Ew." Bon wrinkled up his nose.

"It wasn't pretty."

"And it smelled awful." Freddy added. "Now his soul haunts the suit."

Fred's eyes widened. "_What_?!"

"He's actually not dangerous anymore…I mean he's…well…it's really hard to explain." Freddy sighed. "In other news, Marionette's back here now."

"Really?" Bon blinked in surprise. "But I thought she was…"

"She was just asleep in a warehouse. About a week ago Mike found her and brought her back here- she's staying in a hidden closet right now." Freddy explained briefly.

"Mike?" Fred frowned.

"Lil' Mike." Bonnie said.

Bon and Fred frowned and exchanged a look with each other. "The little kid?"

"Well he's grown up _now_." Freddy shoved Bonnie's shoulder. "He's the night guard here."

"That's another thing we wanted to talk to you about." Fred's expression grew dark. "Have you been paying attention to the paper?"

"No, the paper doesn't exactly come our way." Freddy said. "Why? What's the news?"

"It's about Jeremy- he was in a bad car accident this weekend." Bon said. "He's dead."

"_Dead_?" Freddy and Bonnie echoed.

Bon and Fred nodded.

"That's… tragic." Freddy said. "And creepy that majority of the former night guards are now dead….Best not let that slip to Mike."

"Speak of the devil…" Bonnie nodded towards the door to which Mike was walking through, bringing a gust of chilly air and several crimson autumn leaves with him. He still looked a bit pale, and exhausted. When he saw the four animatronics by the stage he did a double take…or…more of a triple take. Freddy waved him over and clapped him on the shoulder.

"This is Mike the night guard."

Fred and Bon tipped their heads and squinted. "I can see it. A little bit."

Mike rolled his eyes. "God we're not still talking about my kid self are we?"

"What's the matter, Mikey, ye be lookin' a bit ghostly." Foxy asked, grinning and slinging his arm around his friend, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Yeah you look a little _haunted_." Bonnie laughed.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Oh ha, ha very funny." He frowned, pointing to the two toy animatronics, and opened his mouth to ask a much expected question (much to Bonnie's annoyance), but was interrupted.

"Mike!" Janice called. She waved him over and pointed to the manager's office door.

The animatronics all stared at Mike as he swallowed and headed into the manager's office with Janice.

"I don't understand…the smell's gone." Freddy frowned.

"Smell?" Bon asked.

"Vincent's corpse- it's been rotting in the springtrap suit for about two weeks." Bonnie said. "He just cleaned it out last night."

Fred wrinkled his nose. "Sounds pleasant."

"Oh, it was." Bonnie grinned sarcastically. "We'd better get back to 'work' before the employees get suspicious. Chica's over there serving pizza, if you'd like to talk to her."

"Right…see you later." Fred nodded.

"Maybe." Bonnie shrugged.

Freddy rolled his eyes and headed towards a group of kids looking rather bored, sitting at a table. Two teenage girls were supervising them and talking eagerly to each other.

Foxy cast an uneasy look towards the manager's door. "What do you s'pose they want Mike for?"

"I don't know, but if it worries you so much, don't think about it." Freddy shrugged. As he neared the table, the kids all beamed and the teenage girls shriveled up. "Hey kids, why the long faces?"

"My big sister won't let me go play!" A little boy whined.

Out of the corner of his eye, Freddy saw Bonnie wearing a 'well doesn't life suck' expression on his face and made a silent promise to get onto him for it later.

"Aye, that's no fun, is it?" Foxy asked, shooting a glance at the teen girls.

"How many phrases are they programmed to say?" One asked the other.

"I don't know, I think there's like a little camera or something in there or they're radioactive or something…" She snickered. "Or controlled by evil spirits."

"That's some dark thinkin', lass." Foxy frowned.

The teens gawked at him and exchanged a look with each other.

Mike walked out of the manager's office, slightly confused and slightly happy. Janice followed him and gave him a death glare before storming out of the pizzeria, the pink slip sticking out of her back pocket like a sore thumb. Rex and Clove caught sight of it together and turned to stare at Mike. Grinning slowly, Rex walked over to Mike.

"I don't know what you did. But I'm glad you did it. God bless you, Mike." He laughed.

"Apparently I got a raise for whatever I did." Mike shrugged, grinning.

"That's great!" Clove said, walking up to them with a shy look, hands hidden behind her back. "Actually Mike, I have something for you. It's um…my dad likes to take...well there's this warehouse that has old junk and my dad and I tinker around and fix things up…" She pulled her hands from behind her back and placed a small cardboard box in his hands. "I got you that as a…it's a um…a…present." She flushed crimson.

"Thanks…this is for getting Janice fired?" He asked, looking it over. The word 'fragile' was written on the top in bold sharpie.

Clove looked slightly confused for a minute, but then grinned and nodded eagerly.

"How did you know Janice was getting fired before today?"

Her face fell. "I have to go over there, now." She walked away quickly, red faced.

Rex laughed. "She's so _awkward_…What's in the box?"

"I don't know." Mike shrugged.

"Open it." Rex grinned.

Mike opened the cardboard box and delicately pulled out a snow globe. The base had a gold plaque which read 'Pirate Cove' and inside the bowl there was a pirate ship with a little figure of Foxy standing at the bowsprit wearing a grin and holding a sword in front of him. Mike turned the snow globe upside down and a rain of fake snow and glitter covered the tiny Foxy and his ship.

"Wow…" Rex said. "I didn't know they made snow globes like that."

"Neither did I…" Mike said.

"Hey Clove, c'mere!" Rex called to the shy employee. She walked over to them, her cheeks resembling sweat pea flower petals. "Where'd you get this snow globe?"

"I told you, my dad and I found it at an old warehouse." She said.

"You made Foxy and the little ship all by yourself?" Rex's eyes grew with admiration.

"No, it was like that when we found it." She said. "It was in pretty good condition, really. It was just dusty, and it had trouble spinning."

"Spinning?" Rex echoed.

Clove took the snow globe in her hands and carefully turned it upside down, revealing a little screw. "When you turn the screw, it plays music and the pirate ship spins." She said.

"And that's all that was wrong with it?" Rex said frowning. "I didn't think something like that would even play music- who knows how old it is?"

"I know, right…?" Clove said, handing it back to Mike. "You'd think it was fresh from the factory…but in reality I bet it's well over ten years old."

"Well, thanks." Mike said.

Clove flushed and headed off.

Rex wrinkled his nose at her turned back. "Do I get a snow globe? No." He rolled his eyes. "See you later, Mike."

"Yeah, see ya." Mike muttered, not really listening. He turned the globe over in his hands again and watched the glitter sparkle in the light. He was about to turn the screw…

"Ahoy, Mikey! Watcha got there?" Foxy clapped him on the back, making him jump and nearly drop the snow globe.

"Just this thing Clove found." Mike showed his gift to Foxy. "Pretty neat, eh?"

Foxy squinted at it, and then frowned. "Aye…I didn't know they made snow globes like that." He scratched his head with his hook. "Where'd she say she got it from…?"

"She found it in an old warehouse."

"Strange…"

Mike shrugged. "I like it." Suddenly a little thought at the back of his mind made itself known. "Oh, where's Marionette, I forgot all about her."

Foxy chuckled dryly. "She's spendin' the day with Vincent."

"Yike." Mike wrinkled his nose.

He nodded. "By the way, what'd the boss want?"

"Hm? Oh, he said another customer complained about the smell. I said I found a dead rat in one of the back closets and got rid of it, and he said 'that's not what I'm talking about, but thank you'. So I got a raise."

"Did he say what the smell was?"

"Yeah, Janice was a pothead and boss fired her."

Foxy blinked and scratched his head again. "How did we not notice that…?"

Mike shrugged, putting the music box away in its box again. "Listen I'm gonna head home now. See you in a few hours."

Looking a bit confused, Foxy nodded at him. "Right..."

After being greeted by his dog, Mike sat down on the couch and took the snow globe from its packaging once more. He looked it over and over again. Something seemed amiss about it…but he just couldn't place what it was. No matter. He flipped it over, turned the screw several long times and set it on his coffee table.

Within the globe, the pirate ship began to spin slowly clockwise. A soft lullaby drifted from the globe, clean and sweet as though it'd never been sung before. As the globe turned and the snow globe sang, Mike blinked, feeling drowsy. It almost sounded like the song was getting louder…and he could here another instrument…bells? He leaned back on the couch, his vision getting cloudy with a warm, drowsy daze. The melody seemed to be coming from all around, the low notes rising from the floor like growing flowers and the high notes sprinkling down from the ceiling like falling snow. The ship spun and the song played, louder, but somehow warm and comforting in a way, until…

**Cliff hanger? This chapter is short, but the next one is actually gonna be pretty long. I think it's got like 2 flash backs in it. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Warning this chapter has a death scene. Ha ha ha.. Sometimes when I write these chapters I go "I'm gonna actually try this time." And then I finish the chapter and I'm like. "Good enough."**

The pizzeria was dark, almost like the power had gone out but…it hadn't. The fan was still running, the light was still on…but it was different somehow… It was quiet; a thick, uneasy, eerie quiet. Mike shivered and rose from his chair at the desk.

"Hey, guys?" He called out, heading for the right door. As he walked through the doorway, an unnerving, robotic scream sliced through the silence. Shuddering, he froze in his steps. Should he stay in the office where it was safe? Or venture into the unknown shadows?

"Hello?" He asked in a small voice. "Foxy? Was that you?"

"Mike." Freddy's voice called from the darkness. "Come here."

Feeling a bit comforted at the sound of a familiar voice, Mike ventured into the eerie dark. The hallway's shadows darkened to an uncomfortable, cold void. His foot bumped up against something, and as his eyes adjusted he saw that it was the disembodied head of Bonnie.

"W-what?" Looking around him, Mike saw the limp and mangled bodies of Chica and Foxy as well as Bonnie, who was in pieces.

"What's the matter?" Freddy's voice asked. The bear came out of the shadows holding a large sledgehammer. "You look frightened."

"Freddy why did you…did you _kill_…are they _dead_?" Mike stammered, still unable to take his eyes off of the still animatronics before him, all with looks of horror still frozen on their faces.

Freddy sighed in a sympathetically annoyed way. "Mike, you knew this was coming, didn't you?" He asked, taking slow steps towards the lone night guard. "I actually thought it was quite obvious…"

"What are you going to-"

Before he could finish his question, the sledgehammer was raised and brought down on his skull.

In an instant, the pizzeria was replaced with an empty, shimmering, white field. The grass was white; the sky was a pale gray. Mike looked down and realized he was knee-deep in a gently flowing, aquamarine stream. It would have been quite beautiful if it weren't for the faint, pale figures floating beneath the waters. Expressionless, sightless bodies soared with the current, as if they were being reeled along by the Grim Reaper's fishing rod.

_I've got to get out of here! _Mike thought. _I can't die yet! _But just as he lifted his foot to make way for the shore, a pale and sickly bony hand reached up and grabbed onto him. He jumped and went to pry it off, but two more hands shot up and dragged his arm closer to the waves. Soon enough more and more white, slender, expressionless bodies rose up from the water to drag him into the river of death.

"Stop it! Let go of me!" Mike yelled. But the more he struggled, the more corpses pulled at him. He could feel the chilling water on his neck and began to panic. He took a deep and pointless breath before a hand covered his face and pulled him beneath the surface forever.

Mike jumped awake. Cold water had been replaced with a warm blanket and the hands of many dead people had been replaced with one, big, fat Doberman, snoring with his muzzle resting between his owners shoulder blades.

"Spike, _move_." Mike shoved his dog off his back with effort. The Doberman rolled over with a tired grunt, looking at his master with big brown eyes. Sitting up and rubbing sleep out of his eyes, Mike sighed, feeling stupid at being scared by another nightmare. _What time is it? _He looked at the clock. It was 11:59pm.

"Aye, Mikey, there ye are! I was startin' to get worried you weren't comin' lad!" Foxy said, beaming as Mike entered the pizzeria, still tired and a bit exhausted from nearly sprinting all the way to work. He fell into a chair at one of the tables in the dining room, across from the pirate, his nightmare still fresh in his mind.

"I slept in and didn't hear my alarm clock go off- I fell asleep on the couch again." Mike said. "It's funny, really, that snow globe-"

"That's right," Freddy interrupted, sitting up at the mention of the gift. "Foxy told us about that. Clove says she got it from an old warehouse?"

"That's right." Mike frowned. "What's the big deal? It's just a snow globe."

"Yes but…I've never seen or heard of such a thing like that anywhere in the pizzeria." Freddy said.

"So?"

"So that most likely means that the snow globe wasn't made or thought of by the pizzeria's management."

"In other words," Bonnie leaned on the table with his elbows. "If there were a lot of snow globes like that made and sold in a store, the profits wouldn't go here; they would go to the random guy who made the snow globes. Which is kind of not right because Foxy is considered 'a product of the pizzeria'."

Mike shrugged. "Well I've never seen it before in stores or anything. I would think something like that would be pretty popular. I mean, it plays music and spins around and everything."

"What tune does it play?" Freddy asked.

"Um…I don't know really. I've never heard a song like that before."

The bear rubbed his chin, frowning thoughtfully. "Do us a favor and bring it in tomorrow night so we can mull it over? We might be able to trace back where it came from."

"Nothing is normal with you, is it?" Mike said, rolling his eyes.

"I think you figured that out quite recently." Freddy shot a glance to the ghost children who were requesting Chica to play more songs on the keyboard on stage, Marionette standing amongst them. She looked a lot happier and somewhat relieved to be free of the dark closet she'd been locked in all day.

Mike shuddered. "Yeah." Memories of his nightmares flushed back into his mind. He'd had a couple close calls with death recently, whether it be dreams or at work, and it was starting to get to him. Feeling awkward, he drummed his fingers on the table. "Hey, Freddy I've been a little concerned since last night…"

"Have you?" Freddy asked absentmindedly, pulling a deck of cards out from beneath his hat and shuffling them to prepare for a card game.

"Yeah and I was wondering…do you have any idea as to what it's like to…die?"

Freddy, Bonnie, and Foxy all looked up slowly at the night guard. Bonnie frowned as if the question was the stupidest thing he'd heard and Freddy just blinked at him, holding the cards stiffly in his paws.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "Obviously not. I'm still alive right in front of you."

Mike flushed, feeling stupid. "Alright, never mind."

"If ye wanted to ask anyone about death I think the answer's obvious on who to speak to." Foxy said.

The night guard frowned. "The kids…?"

Freddy shook his head. "I wouldn't want to remind them of their death if I were you." He threw a glance to the joyous faces on stage. "They seem content right now."

"Who, then?"

"Vincent."

Feeling uneasy and slightly anxious, Mike raised his hand to knock on the hidden door to the secret room. From within it, a dreary voice spoke.

"Come in."

Mike slid the door open and jumped as spring trap's face peered at him- upside down again. He looked considerably better, and smelled better too for that matter, apart from the tattered material and loose wires.

"You don't really need to knock there's nothing you can intrude on." Vincent said, crossing his light yellow, soft furred arms in a relaxed way. "You need something?"

"Kind of…?" Mike rubbed the back of his neck. "I've been having a lot of nightmares lately and…other things …Anyways it kind of…sort of…I was curious about…what it was like…to die."

Vincent's glowing white eyes didn't blink. "You want to know what it's like to die?"

"Kind of." He shrugged.

"What makes you so curious?"

"…I don't know…I kind of almost died yesterday, and…I don't know." He tensed, feeling like an idiot again.

"You said you'd been having nightmares?"

Mike shrugged. "I don't know. I always die in them, but each time it's different."

"And you wake up right before you're killed?"

"No, I always go to the afterlife. But each afterlife is different." Mike shrugged. "I don't know…it just seems like a coincidence…or I'm just being an idiot."

Vincent shook his head slightly. "You're not an idiot. You're stressed out from work, that's all, and you're worried, too."

Mike frowned. "I'm not worried or stressed about anything; I work with my best friend- what do I have to be stressed about?"

"Well for one, even though you do get to spend much time with your friends, you can't speak about it to anyone else or they'll call you crazy, maybe fire you and lock you up in the loony house. You also interact with six ghosts on a weekly basis, each of them having died in violent ways. And if that's not enough, you did know the dark secret of a rotting human corpse being kept in a hidden section of the very place you work at every day, a corpse of a psychotic murderer whose soul now haunts a broken robot. On top of that, you can't tell a single person about because it would shut down the pizzeria, you'd be out of a job, your friends would be permanently deactivated, us ghosts would have nowhere to go, and a great number of children would be devastated."

Mike blinked, rubbing his forehead.

"These things may not be fresh in your mind, but they are taking up a great deal of space in your subconscious. This would be resulting in the nightmares you're having." Vincent explained.

"How do I get them to stop?"

"Since my corpse isn't stuffed in this suit anymore, that might help you quit worrying about working with a dead body a bit. And I'm sure the more time you spend with the ghosts, the less worried you'll be of them. When Paul possessed you it was an accident, and while I'm sure it was traumatizing I can assure you that the chances of it happening again are incredibly slim. As far as keeping everything a secret….well…I suppose you could tell one or two persons you have great trust in…but if you want to get rid of the nightmares for _good_, you should probably quit your job. Or see a therapist…which would…probably result in you being termed 'mentally unstable'."

Mike blinked again. "I guess a few nightmares can't hurt."

Vincent chuckled dryly, in a forced way. "Did that answer your question?"

"Yeah…what _is_ it like? Dying, I mean?"

The robot merely stared at him.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's fine. It's hard to explain. I have a feeling that it's meant to have a peaceful feel to it; you're resting. All of your life accomplishments and hard efforts are being rewarded with the permanent resting of your shell and the bliss eternity of the afterlife. But for some people it's not like that." In a swift movement, the yellow animatronic was standing on the floor right side up. He leaned against the back wall, folding his arms again. "They always write about it in books as 'a flash of light' or 'my vision went dark' or a deceased loved one leads them away. It's actually very uncomfortable. You feel your body shutting down; your heart stop beating, your lungs stop breathing, and your limbs stop moving. Everything shuts down and becomes still; despite your urges to be alive. And, in my experience, it was a lot more violent than that."

"How so?"

"Well you have to keep in mind that I still had a brain disease, I had command hallucinations. I don't know if Freddy or one of the others told you, but I used to randomly show up here after hours. One day I walked in and I didn't walk out…"

_Rain drizzled the roof of the pizzeria. It was a dreary Sunday afternoon, and Vincent knew from experience the animatronics would be busying themselves with minor chores. He was pacing back and forth outside the back door; his mind was getting foggy again. He hated it when that happened. A voice echoed in his ear._

"_It's frustrating, isn't it?" It asked him. "You're frustrating…"_

_Vincent shook his head, his hands shaking, and went into the restaurant through the back door at the voice's command. The voice often told him to come here, and he obeyed. It was good to obey the voice, because he hated all of the things it told him when he didn't obey. _

_So far, no one had heard or seen him come in. As he walked alone through the dark hallways, he heard singsong voice approaching him._

"_It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. He went to bed and he bumped his head. He couldn't get up in the morning…" It sang._

_A pale figure of a little girl appeared before him. When she saw the man before her, she blinked and then gave a little smile. "Hello." _

_Vincent started, frightened by her appearance. Who was this girl? She wasn't standing on the ground, and he could see straight through her big round eyes to the objects behind her. She was a ghost. What did a ghost want with him?_

_She floated closer to him. "I'm Laura." She said. _

_The name didn't seem familiar to him, but deep down inside, something uneasy churned his stomach. He felt as if he'd seen her face before. _

"_Don't you remember?" Laura asked. "It's me."_

_It's her. Her as in there were others. Four others, to be exact. And Vincent remembered every single one of them. He only became more scared._

_She tilted her head and frowned. And when she spoke again, he felt sick in his stomach. "Why did you kill me? And my friends?"_

_Good question. Why _had _he done it? Simple. The voice told him to do it. That had made sense to him before…so why wasn't it enough now? _

"_Why did you kill me?" She repeated, looking up at him with sweet, innocent eyes. _

"_K-k-kill?" He echoed, shaking. Now what? How had this strange little ghost found him? Why did she say such things to him? It made him feel awful…almost as if he'd done something…wrong. But how could that be? All he'd done in the past was obeyed the voice in his ear. Hadn't that been the right thing to do? Somehow the very thought of that voice made his stomach queasy. Being around the ghost made him feel sick._

"_She's draining your health by her very presence!" Hissed the voice in his ear. "Run!" _

_And he knew just where to hide. Vincent dashed around Laura's ghost and ran through the darkened hallways until he came to the hidden room. Hands shaking violently, he found the nick in the wall that was the door's handle and slid the door aside, spider webs and dust clung to it pleadingly before being swept away by Vincent's hand. Milky gray light flooded into the room for once in a very long time. There in the faint light, blanketed with dust and rotting away, was his savior._

"_Vincent? Why did you run away?" Laura's voice echoed through the hallway behind him._

"_Hide you idiot!" The voice in his ear bellowed._

_Quickly, but efficiently, he strapped on the dusty yellow suit, putting on the façade of an old friendly character that was now long gone. His vision wavered slightly as he put on his mask, but focused again on the opened door behind him, where Laura was now drifting through. When she saw Vincent, she frowned again._

"_Who are you?" She asked, seeing not the demented man, but instead the kind yellow bunny._

_It was working! She couldn't tell who he was! Now all he needed was a convincing lie to tell her… _

_But before the voice could so much as whisper into his ear, there was a sudden clicking sound as metal locked with metal. Vincent froze in his track._

Uh oh.

_A sharp pain jolted through his limbs and sliced across his middle. He felt both metallic and electric strain coursing through his bones. An agonized spasm wracked his body as his insides contorted and twisted. He let out a shriek, seized by agony. Gripping the jaw of his mask, he tried in vain to pry it from his head, but something cold and hard shot through his own jaw and his upper lip and he screamed again, tasting the metallic tang of his own blood. The more he pried and pulled, the more torment was inflicted upon him. His whole body was a convulsing, twisting flurry of torture. He howled in agony as he felt wires and cables being forced into his skull and through his skin, sewing him permanently to his façade. _

Help me! Help me! _He wanted to scream, but the bars in his mouth prevented him from forming sensible dialect. All that could be heard were choking screams._

_Voices echoed around him and he saw four pale, small figures floating into the room, sticking to the walls, looking at him with a mix of confusion and utter disgust. He followed their gazes to the floor where he saw his own crimson welling out of the suit and pooling on the floor in a reeking puddle._

_He felt an unbearable stinging strain in his eyes and his vision wavered. His eyes darted around the room, to scared ghosts covering their eyes and ears, to the ceiling, to the floor, to an empty shelf in the corner, before he felt a ripping in his eye sockets and everything went black. _I can't see! I can't see! _Now he was in utter darkness. The terror building up inside of him was overflowing, his pulse thundering in his ears along with his own screeches of misery. He could feel his own warm blood swimming out through the cracks and tears in the suit and splashing to the floor like a dark, sticky, reeking waterfall. He slipped in a puddle of the dark crimson mess and fell back against the wall with a cry and a sickening crack that vibrated up his spine. _

_By now, the worst of the pain was over. He was shaking uncontrollably still, convulsing and twitching, but unable to take control of his movements. Liquid was filling his lungs; he could barely breathe. His voice had gone hoarse from screaming, and he whimpered feebly, hoping that something, anything would ease the pain._

_Several footsteps thundered into the room._

"_Oh my _god…" _The first voice gasped. "Kids, what happened in here?!"_

"_I don't know!" A little boy squeaked. "We heard screaming and we came in here and Laura was with the bunny and he just fell over!"_

"_Freddy, who is that? I've never seen him before." Another ghost asked. "Why was he all alone in here?"_

"_Well who was in here when it happened?" The second, more gruff voice asked. "Laura? Tell us what happened, lass."_

"_I saw Vincent again," Laura's started, and the two animatronics gasped at the very mention of his name. _

_Vincent winced beneath his convulsing. The voice wasn't there in his ear anymore, and for the oddest reason, while he faintly listened to Laura describe what she saw, he felt a sense of relief that the voice had left him. But a greater part of him was overtaken by searing misery…and guilt. _

"_Listen," One of the boy ghosts' voice murmured as Laura finished speaking, his voice sounded close to the mangled, dying thing in the room. "It's breathing."_

"_The lad's right." Foxy's voice said grimly to Freddy as he picked up the irregular gurgling breaths coming from the old suit's mouth, with was parted slightly._

"_Kids, why don't you go head into the other room? We'll be there in just a few minutes." Freddy's voice said, just barely sounding calm so as not to frighten the children…more than they already were. _

"_Okay!" A ghost's voice said cheerily._

_There was a pause in which the ghosts silently left the room, and the only sound was faint ragged breathing. Soon, two pairs of footsteps thundered into the room and two new voices gagged at the overwhelming odor of spilt blood, or perhaps just the gruesome sight of the atrocity on the ground._

"_Oh, God!" Yelped Bonnie's voice. _

"_S-s-springtrap?" Chica's voice stammered. _

"_Not exactly…" Freddy's voice was grim, and that was enough for the slow realization of the truth of event to dawn upon them._

"_S'pose we could get 'em outta there?" Foxy's voice asked, his footsteps approaching Vincent and kneeling beside him. "Turn 'em into the police or somethin'?"_

"_Yes…I think this is awfully brutal, even for someone like Vincent…" Chica's voice said._

_They all gathered around the body, leaning over him. An arm was stretched underneath Vincent, propping him up for closer examination, causing pain to jolt through his torso and he whined feebly. As he was, he heard the four around him gnash their teeth or make a negative sound._

"_He's lodged in there pretty good…" Freddy's voice said, tipping the top of the old robot's jaw up and causing more strain in Vincent's unseeing eyes._

"_Try dislodging those bars, there." Bonnie's voice said, tapping one of the rods that had driven through Vincent's jaw and sending a vibration up into his skull that made his mouth go numb. "Maybe if you can do that, the mask with lift off."_

"_Hang in there, lad." Foxy's voice said, gripping a rod and the top half of spring trap's head. As soon as he pried at it, an aching wave of torture engulfed his jaw and skull. Vincent moaned in protest as sharp straining pain engulfed his jaw, tears and blood streaming down his face. "Doesn't seem to be working…" Foxy's voice muttered, giving up._

"_Yeah, look." Freddy's voice pointed out. "It's wired him in, almost as if he was an endoskeleton but….worse." _

_By now, Vincent's limbs felt numb. His senses were fading, and even the voices around him were becoming distorted._

"_What should we do?" Chica asked. "He won't live long, but…"_

"_The least we could do is put him out of his misery…" Freddy said. "But it looks like even doing that would be a challenge."_

_Vincent felt his veins slowly shutting down and getting cold and even his short breathing seemed to become more and more of a great effort._

"_Unless…" Freddy tapped a spot in the suit, where the material had been torn away, right over Vincent's slowly dying heart. The three others passed a silent confirmation between each other. "Foxy..."_

_Vincent didn't need to see the sharp point of the hook to know what was coming next. There was a sharp, ripping pain that dove straight into his chest before he gasped and all of a sudden it was over._

"…And then after my ghost threw a temper tantrum we had a long talk about this and that and I think you know the rest." Vincent shrugged. "But there you go, that's death…or…_my_ experience with death, at least."

"So that's it, then? You just kind of…slip away?" Mike asked. "There's no river? Or ladder or anything?"

"What, you mean the afterlife?" Vincent asked. "Nah, that's different." He frowned and tapped his chin. "As a matter of fact, I think it's completely different if you die along with nature's course…Sorry Mike, looks like no one here can give you the answer you're looking for."

"What's the difference between dying according to 'nature's course' and being murdered or something?" Mike asked.

"When you're killed unfairly, your soul gets angry and sad and really upset and pretty much throws a temper tantrum."

"I've never seen anything like that before." Mike frowned, folding his arms.

"You wouldn't. No human being has ever heard a ghost scream or see a ghost cry." Seeing the night guard's slow processing, Vincent went on. "For example, do you have a dog or a cat?"

"Yeah."

"Does he ever stare out the window and start barking at nothing?"

"Yeah, all dogs do that, right?"

"The vast majority of them do, yes, but that's not the point. You might think he's barking at a squirrel or a neighboring cat, and he very well could be, but there's a possibility he could also be hearing or seeing a ghost throwing a fit."

Mike blinked uneasily. "That's a pleasant thought." He shifted. "What does a ghost _do_ when they go off like that?"

"I don't know. I don't remember. But I was probably yelling and crying a lot." Vincent shrugged. "Any more questions?"

"Not really."

"Good. I'm bored; let's go see what the others are doing." Without waiting for a reply, the yellow rabbit walked past the night guard and out into the rest of the night-coated pizzeria. He skipped a few steps, then did a flawless handspring, landing swiftly on his crooked feet again.

Mike raised an eyebrow. "What was that for?"

Vincent didn't blink and continued walking as if the action wasn't at all out of the ordinary. "I don't know."

The others looked up as Mike and Vincent entered the room, Chica giving them a friendly wave and ending up tipping over a music stand. Marionette caught it just before it could crash to the ground.

"Well, Mike, did your awkward and personal questions get answered?" Bonnie asked, folding his arms behind his head and quirking an eyebrow.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"What brings you out here, Springtrap?" Freddy asked, not looking up from shuffling a deck of cards.

"I thought his name was Vincent." The ghost of John frowned, leaving the stage to float over towards the table.

"We call 'em both." Foxy said.

"He likes Springtrap better, I think." Jess said, joining them. "Because he doesn't like his living self, remember?"

The atmosphere immediately became awkward and everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances with each other. Bonnie laughed nervously at the little ghost girl's confused look.

"I wouldn't…say that…" Freddy started with a forced chuckle.

"Sorry for making things awkward again." Vincent said. "I'm gonna go look out the front window."

"It's not that you make things awkward," Freddy started, watching the yellow ghost-possessed animatronic lumber off down the hallway.

"It's just that people say a bunch of things that we all think are going to offend him but in reality he doesn't really give a crap." Bonnie said, even though the grim spirit was already out of earshot. "That's what it seems like to me. He doesn't really get offended unless you call him a straight up brutal murderer, because, you know, mental disorder and all of that fun stuff."

"Did you really call 'em that?" Foxy asked, raising an eyebrow at Bonnie.

Mike looked at Freddy. "I'm still confused with the whole 'mental disorder messing up your soul' thing."

Freddy rolled his eyes, now becoming annoyed of Mike's endless stream of confusing. "Having a mental disorder is like being in an abusive relationship. Your brain and your soul are _supposed_ to coordinate with each other as one as best as they can while you're alive, but if you have a mental disorder, your brain becomes abusive and pretty much locks your true self in a cage that can't be broken for the rest of your life ever."

"So then you're basically like a walking malfunction?"

"Pretty much."

"That's terrible." Mike frowned.

Freddy shrugged with a half-sigh. "It's sad, but it happens. The bad thing is that a lot of people, like Vincent, don't know they have mental disorders until someone else tells them so; that's why some mentally ill people act out violently- their disease takes over."

The night guard looked thoughtfully in the direction Springtrap had vanished. "When did you know that Vincent was the murderer?"

"A few days before the old place closed down." Freddy said, tapping his chin. "You see, Vincent was a pretty good guy before he went ballistic. As a matter of fact, he understood us pretty well, a little more than the other employees…kind of like you do, you know? Anyway, after the murder, we were all kind of edgy about the employees, but even then Vincent wasn't the first person on our list of suspects." He threw a glance towards the stage before continuing, now in a lower voice. "It was after the bite of 87 when we really started noticing something funny going on with him. His appearance got more ragged, he looked paler, and he started withdrawing from everyone. It was a time of unrest for everyone, really, what with Mangle and Marionette being shut down for good, but that's a story for a different time.

Anyway, we were all pretty confused with the way he was acting; not talking to anyone. And then it just hit us, and we knew it was him. It was quite devastating, actually. Like I said, we never really thought it could be him."

Mike shifted. It must've been awful to find out that a good friend of yours had done something so despicable. Then to watch them die horribly and find out that they were brain-sick all along…_Jesus that's confusing. _He thought, rubbing his forehead.

"Hey guys, what're we talking about?" Marionette asked, grinning and leaning on the table near Freddy and Mike.

"Nothing." Freddy said before Mike could answer.

She chuckled with a smile. "So you guys are talking behind my back again, got it."

Freddy shrugged. "Our conversation just wasn't interesting."

"With Mike it never is." Bonnie said with a rude grin in the night guard's direction.

"Shut up." Mike leaned back in his chair. "I'm bored."

"Then why don't you come up here and help me write a song?" Chica called from the stage, playing scales on the keyboard.

"He can't, remember? He's not musically inclined." Bonnie cocked an eyebrow.

Foxy shrugged. "Neither am I."

"Sure you are," Bonnie propped his feet up on the table. "You're a pirate; pirates sing don't they? And they usually have a flute or guitar or something, right?"

Foxy scratched his head with his hook. "But I don't sing."

At once, Freddy put down his cards, Chica stopped playing the keyboard, and Marionette looked up from toying with a loose piece of table cloth as everyone in the room fixed him with a stern look.

"You don't _sing_?" Freddy echoed.

"Not really, no." Foxy shrugged, looking at all of them as if they were crazy.

Bonnie looked at him with a disbelieving expression. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, why?"

"You don't sing…in Pirate Cove?"

"Well, maybe-

"In the dining room?" Chica asked.

"In the night guard's office?" Freddy asked.

"With the children?" Marionette asked.

"Right here? Right now? _Ten_ _minutes_ _ago_?" Bonnie asked. "Shanties, shanties, shanties, that's all I ever hear from you."

Foxy folded his arms and tightened his jaw. "Okay, maybe I sing a lil' bit."

"God, Foxy, you're almost as bad as Mike." Bonnie chuckled.

Marionette smiled, propping her head up on the table with her head. "It's special; what you two have." She said, twirling her finger in Foxy's direction.

"Which 'you two' are ye talkin' 'bout, lass?" Foxy asked, taking a swallow from his red plastic cup.

"You and Mike." She smiled.

Mike looked up from sorting out a deck of cards. "What are we talking about?"

Bonnie grinned rudely. "I think it's special too, Marionette. You don't see couples like _that_ every day."

"Not THAT kind of special!" Marionette gave the bunny a shove while he earned several other scowls and whacks to the back of the head. "What I _mean_ is; they have a good friendship. It's lasted a long time you know?" Marionette smiled.

"Not really?" Mike raised an eyebrow. "We kind of didn't speak for…" He started counting on his fingers, then stopped at ten. "A long time."

"But still you-

"Alright, Marionette, we get it." Freddy cut her off. "They have a touching, unbreakable friendship that everyone should look up to, yada yada yada, blah blah blah."

The little animatronic folded her arms with a huff. "Jeez I was just complimenting them."

"Yeah well after a snide remark from Bonnie I don't think they want to be complimented right now." Chica chuckled, turning off her keyboard. Mike and Foxy laughed.

"Hey, you never-" Bonnie was cut off by the chiming of a clock. They all turned their heads to look at the clock on the wall. The time teller pointed out that it was 6 am, singing each hour.

"Well lookit that." Foxy said. "Time's flyin' away just like the good ol' days."

Mike yawned and stood up from his place at the table. "Alright, I'm going home."

"Remember to bring that snow globe with you tomorrow, okay?" Freddy reminded him, stuffing his cards back into their box.

"Right." Mike pointed to Marionette. "Are you staying here the night or are you coming back with me?"

Marionette turned to Chica. "Do I _have_ to stay with Vincent?"

The bird shot an uneasy look at Freddy and Bonnie and nodded. "Yeah, but look at the bright side he's-"

"I'll go with Mike." Marionette stood up with a yawn and headed out of the room, already walking down the hallway towards the front entrance.

Mike frowned at the tense looks the four other animatronics were giving each other. "What is it?" he asked, looking from them to Marionette. "Is it something about-

"It's nothing." Freddy interrupted quickly.

"We just…kind of would prefer it if she stayed here in the pizzeria, that's all." Chica said. " You know, because it's easier for her to be spotted when she's out there instead of in here."

"Well, then should she stay?"

"No, she'll be fine as long as she stays inside and doesn't answer the door." Bonnie said, waving him off. "Hey, tick-tock buddy, the sun's comin' up."

"Right…see ya…" Mike gave them a curt nod, still feeling as if there was something they weren't telling him. As he passed out the front entrance, Marionette waiting for him, he waved goodbye to Vincent, who was looking out the window.

"Good morning, Vincent."

"Good morning, Mike. You too, Marionette." The yellow animatronic suit turned and headed away, going back to hide in the dark and away from the rising sun.

Marionette didn't seem to hear him as the two left the restaurant. As they walked briskly down the sidewalks bathed in milky dawn light, Mike gave her a sideways glance. She blinked at him and frowned slightly.

"What're you looking at me like that for?" She asked.

"I don't know…" Mike took of his night guard cap and rubbed his head. "Nothing." But the gears in his mind were turning with questions. She says she loves being around children- she talks about it all the time. And she also says she loved the old place and wishes she could go back…but she hates being at the pizzeria and she never has any stories to share about the old place like the others do.

She gave him a look as if she thought he was keeping something from her and looked at the ground again, her gazed crossed in a strange expression.

Mike blinked and didn't respond. He'd have thought that she'd have a lot more to say about the old place, considering it's all she's ever known, not some distant memory. And she also spoke about Vincent as if she'd always hated him…but if he was good friends with the others back at the old place, how could she have gained hatred for him so quickly? He shrugged. Then again, it was right before Marionette was 'deactivated' that they all found out he was the murderer. Perhaps having _that_ as your most recent memory of someone takes a longer healing process.

Figuring it was nothing to think too hard about; Mike shrugged it off like a fluttering red autumn leaf. Speaking of which, they were everywhere this time of the year; in great big piles on people's lawns, skittering across the road, blanketing rooftops, and even clogging up streams.

A chilly gust of wind cast itself upon Marionette and she shivered. "Gosh, I can't believe it's already autumn." But according to the barren tree trunks around them, it felt like it was already winter.

**Not many interesting things going on here. A lot of this story is just a bunch of flashbacks and puzzle solving, but I've got a plan…sort of. Maybe. I don't know. I'm really bored this time of the year and usually just spend 8 hours a day listening to music. **


	11. Chapter 11

**PLOT TWIST! Just kidding. I want to have a plot twist in here somewhere but you know.**

The next morning came and Mike was thankful he didn't have to put up with any nightmares. He was preparing to head out the front door when he saw Marionette fast asleep on the couch. She was curled up in a tight ball, twitching slightly. He frowned and chuckled at her unconscious movement, but his smile soon fell when she spoke under a blanket of drowsiness.

"Vin…cent…" She muttered unknowingly.

Mike blinked and rubbed the back of his neck. _Jeez…sounds like a nightmare to me._ He gave her shoulder a shove and she opened her eyes groggily.

"Wha-?" She mumbled sleepily. "Mike? What…what are you…?"

"Sounded like you were having a nightmare. So I woke you up." He shrugged. "You're welcome, by the way."

"A nightmare…? Yeah….okay …" She rolled over to go back to sleep, obviously unaffected by whatever it was that disturbed her slumber.

"Marionette, I'm heading back to the pizzeria for work. Are you coming with me or are you staying here with Spike?" He raised an eyebrow, leaning in the front doorway.

"Sure, after I win the…." She trailed off, her back turned to him.

He rolled his eyes with a grin. "Win what?"

"The race...they told me to win the race…I have to dance…"

"I'll be back in a few hours." He opened the door and headed out with his snow globe in his hand, not waiting to hear whatever strange response she had to make up.

"Good, you brought it." Freddy said as he poked his head through the door to the night guard's office. He lumbered over to where the snow globe was perched on the desk in front of Mike and picked up, looking it over closely.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Mike shrugged with a slight frown. "It's just a snow globe."

"Yes…but…" Freddy frowned as he looked the base of the globe over. "That's strange…"

"What?"

"There's no barcode sticker." Freddy said, handing the fragile object back to its owner. "Or brand name or any information whatsoever as to who or where it was made."

Mike shrugged. "It was found in a warehouse. Maybe the previous owner tore off the sticker or something."

"But even then, there would be some kind of traces of it left on the wood." Freddy counter claimed.

"Unless they washed it off." Mike pointed out, quirking an eyebrow.

"True." Freddy rolled his eyes, unconvinced. He reached over and pulled the flustering object out of Mike's hand and turned it over, revealing the little gold screw. "Let me see…" With a twist of his fingers, he'd cranked the screw with a _k-k-k_.

"DON'T!" Mike shouted, but it was too late. Within the globe, the little ship starting slowly spinning, and the music box was singing its melody.

"What?" Freddy asked, frowning. But, to Mike, the bears voice was muffled by the sounds of bells and music. His head went fuzzy and before he knew it, he was fast asleep, slumped over on the desk.

Freddy blinked in utmost confusion, looking from the snow globe in his paws to the sleeping night guard on the desk. All he'd done was turn the screw to start the music, and Mike had freaked out, and…fallen asleep? _That's a red flag. _Freddy poked the guard's shoulder lightly, and then prodded him in the face. Nothing. He was out.

Strangely, the music in the music box quieted. It still kept tempo and rhythm; the music simply got quieter and quieter and quieter…until Freddy couldn't hear it anymore. He frowned deeply and looked from Mike to the snow globe.

"Either this thing has more to it than meets the eye…" He threw a glance at the night guard. "Or you've got some _serious_ sleeping problems."

"What's goin' on?" Freddy turned at the sound of Foxy's voice. The pirate was standing in the doorway with Springtrap just behind him. When he caught sight of his sleeping friend, he strode inside with a frown.

"What's he sleepin' for? Just got here not fifteen minutes ago, didn't he?" Foxy asked, nudging Mike's shoulder with his hook.

"I don't know…" Freddy scratched his forehead. "All I did was crank the music box, and as soon as the music started, he fell asleep."

"Strange…" Vincent murmured, making Freddy jump- he hadn't heard him walk in. "What tune does it play?"

"I _really_ don't know." Freddy frowned harder, handing the snow globe to Vincent. "I've never heard it before either."

"Is that so?" Vincent frowned and mulled the object over carefully. "This is that funny snow globe you guys were talking about earlier?"

"Yeah."

"You said it was found in an old warehouse?"

"That's right."

"Do you mind if I look it over for a little while?" Vincent asked, looking up. "I've been around to hear a good few generations of music. Perhaps if I had the time I'd be able to identify the melody?"

Freddy and Foxy exchanged a glance.

"As long as ye don't break it, it's fine with me." Foxy shrugged, leaning against the desk.

"Alright then, have at it." Freddy said. "By the way, there's a computer in the manager's office if you want to Google something."

Vincent frowned at Freddy as if his statement made absolutely no sense, then he simply gave a nod and headed out of the room to be replaced with Chica and Bonnie.

"So I guess we're having a party in the office again." Bonnie said, leaning in the doorway. "The cramped…small…dusty…office."

"I think it's cozy." Chica said, walking in. She tripped on the waste basket, sliding her hand on the desk and sending a stack of papers scattering to the floor. Quickly, she jumped up and raised her arms. "I'm okay!"

Bonnie rolled his eyes with a half smile. His robotic gaze fell on the snoozing night guard. Grinning in a menacing way, he walked over and shoved him, shouting in his ear. "RAH!" Much to the bunny's disappointment, Mike stayed fast asleep.

"What's he sleeping for? It hasn't even been half an hour yet, he just _got_ here." Bonnie frowned, folding his arms.

Freddy shrugged. "I think that snow globe put him to sleep." He threw a glance to the door. "Vincent's tinkering with it right now…"

Bonnie and Chica wrinkled their noses in slight distrust and a look that said 'are you _sure_ you think that's a good idea?'

"Sounds fun." Bonnie muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What're we gonna do until Mike wakes up?" Chica asked, peeling a slip of paper from her foot.

"Same thing as always?" Bonnie shot her a somewhat confused frown. "Mess around with the instruments, play cards, play poker…all that other stuff?"

"But wait, where's Marionette?"

Freddy blinked. "Good question."

They all looked around the office briefly for any sign of the little animatronic and gave each other slightly confused looks as they found nothing.

"Maybe she wasn't feeling well?" Chica shrugged.

Foxy blinked the eye that wasn't hidden beneath his eye patch. "Or she just didn't want to be 'round-"

"Why is he sleeping?" A small voice behind him asked.

"He's _boring_." Another voice replied.

John and Chris's ghosts were frowning over Mike, still strapped into his oblivious slumber. They poked him and he snored loudly.

"Kids, quit messing with Mike he's probably really tired from…" Freddy trailed off, running a paw over his head. "Why is he always so _tired_? Why doesn't he just sleep during the day, it's not like he has a life or anything, no one who accepts this job does."

Bonnie laughed. "Mike has no friends."

John frowned slightly. "But you all are his friends…right?"

"Absolutely not." Bonnie said.

"Of course we are!" Chica chipped in synch with the grump.

Chris and John exchanged a glance. They opened their mouths to say something, but stopped short as the night guard stirred and opened his eyes with a yawn. Seeing all of the animatronics in his office at once, he frowned slightly. His face turned pale with a sudden fright as he saw the ghosts at his sides.

"W-what happened?" He stammered, sitting up and rubbing his forehead.

"Great. He's awake. Now to do something more productive." Bonnie turned on his heel and marched out of the room. Mike rolled his eyes.

"You fell asleep when I cranked the snow globe screw." Freddy said, ignoring Bonnie's absence."Vincent's tinkering with it right now."

"That's encouraging." Mike blinked, tipping his eyebrows inward.

Chris nodded, oblivious to the man's sarcasm. "Vincent knows all kinds of music! He knows music from the 2000's and the 90's and the 80's- he _really_ likes the 80's- and the 70's and the 60's and even the _50's_!"

"Is that so?" Freddy asked, not really interested as he shuffled through papers on the desk, straightening them into neat, even piles.

"Mmhm!" John piped up. "He talks about music a lot. He hums a little bit, but he doesn't sing. Not even when Jess asked him to sing with her about frogs." The little boy looked to his ghostly friend. "Do you think he's afraid of singing?"

Again Chris nodded. "I get scared of singing when people are looking at me."

"Alright, I don't get it." Vincent's voice barked from the doorway. He lumbered into the room and put the snow globe on the desk, giving it a menacing look. "It-

"Vincent, are you scared of singing when people look at you?" John interrupted.

The old animatronic's tattered, pale eyes frowned slightly. "Nope. I can sing, dance, or play an instrument no matter who's watching." He went to continue, but was interrupted again by Chris.

"Even if your whole _town_ sees you?" The boy asked, wandering over to a kid-ish train of thought.

Springtrap's mouth smiled slightly. "Yep."

"Even when _girls_ see you?" John grinned, causing Chris to snicker childishly.

Vincent nodded. "Yeah, most of the time."

Before the tittering children could ask any more questions, Vincent turned to look at Freddy.

"Did you know that the average child asks around 144 questions a day?" He asked. "That's 720 questions a day, with these five."

Chica laughed. "I love answering questions."

Freddy raised his eyebrows at her. "Think about that statement, Chica." He turned back to Vincent. "So the music box?"

"Technically it's a snow globe." Mike said sheepishly from the rolling desk chair.

Freddy rolled his eyes. "Right, right…whatever." He turned towards Vincent again. "So the _snow_ _globe_."

"That's right," The decaying aniamtronic snapped his fingers. "I've never heard anything like it before. It's…_weird_. I didn't even bother using the computer; it's just so…_weird_."

"So you didn't need to Google anything?" Freddy quirked an eyebrow.

Vincent frowned in return and didn't speak, as if he didn't understand what Freddy was saying. "Did you say '_Google'_?"

"Yeah, that's the name of the search engine."

"I was going to ask you, what does 'Google' mean?" Vincent rubbed his head, oblivious to the way Mike gawked at him in disbelief. "I'm kind of familiar with internet and all that…I don't remember much about the late 90's…I don't remember a lot of the things I did when I was, you know, a spastic, demented, psychopath. Everything after 95 is a big blur of stuff I don't remember at all ever."

"_Seriously_?" Mike blinked.

"Okay, Google isn't important right now," Freddy waved his paws to stop an argument before it occurred. "You couldn't figure out the music box melody?"

"Snow globe."

"Shut up."

"No, I couldn't." Vincent rubbed his forehead in deep frustration. "It's irritating…Mike, maybe you should check out that warehouse that girl got it from, or ask her about the melody."

Foxy gave a thoughtful nod. "Maybe I could take a crack at it?" He picked up the snow globe and went to crank it.

"STOP!" Mike cried, jumping to his feet.

Foxy jumped, taken aback. "What?" He asked, setting the snow globe down slowly on the desk again.

"It makes him fall asleep." Freddy explained briefly. "Very quickly, actually."

"Really?" Vincent asked.

"Yep."

"That's a red flag."

"That's what I said." Freddy nodded.

"Mike, if I were you, I'd ask this person to take you to see the warehouse where she found the snow globe in." Vincent said, turning his piercing pale gaze to the night guard. "Or ask her if she wrote the melody herself. If she did, I think you should probably see a psychiatrist…or just stay away from her."

"I'm still a bit curious," Chica murmured. "What does it sound like?"

Vincent tapped his yellow-furred chin. "Let me play it for you on the keyboard." He turned on his heel and marched out of the room, the others following him with slight interest. As they followed him down the dimly lit hallway, one of the two ghosts flanking Vincent looked up at him with slight confusion.

"Why don't you just hum it?" Chris asked.

"Because the sound of my voice makes puppies cry." Vincent said without looking down at him.

John giggled. "Is that why you don't sing?"

The yellow animatronic's broken ear twitched. "Maybe." Without acknowledging Bonnie's lonely presence in the room, he climbed onto the stage and turned on the keyboard, briefly playing a scale.

"Is _everyone_ here more musically inclined than I am?!" Mike threw up his hands in frustration, causing Foxy to laugh.

"Pretty much, yep." Bonnie nodded, strumming his instrument.

"Ssshh! I'm trying to listen!" Chica waved her arm to them, straining to hear Vincent on the piano. The others quieted down to hear the melody, all of them frowning at the melody they heard. It was unrecognizable, that's for sure, but there was something about it that was incredibly…puzzling. The last few notes, however, a gruff voice hummed along.

Vincent lifted his head to stare at Foxy, along with everyone else in the room. They looked at him with almost disbelieving looks. "You've heard it before?" Vincent asked.

Foxy, suddenly aware of all of the attention bestowed upon him, blinked and shrugged sheepishly. "N-no." He scratched his head, embarrassed.

"But…you hummed it. The last bit of it."

"…I did…didn't I?"

"So you've never heard it before…but you…know how it goes?"

"I guess I just improvised."

Vincent squinted, then shook his head slightly. "Okay, never mind." His pale gaze swept around everyone else. "It sounds weird doesn't it?"

Foxy tipped his head. "It sounds ancient t'me."

Chica nodded. "I agree, it sounds like a song that was written a long time ago, like something to remember."

"Or something to remind you of…something else." Freddy straightened his bowtie.

"Or _someone_ else." Bonnie blinked, giving the strings on his instrument a careful strum. "Maybe someone close."

"An old friend perhaps?"

"Or a brother or a sister?" Chica piped up.

"Whatever the reason behind the melody, it'd sure be nice if we knew what it was." Vincent rubbed his head in between his one-and-a-half ear. "You guys seem to have more of a closer feel to it than I do."

"I'll talk to Clove about it tomorrow." Mike promised, still looking most uninterested in the topic that had captivated everyone else. He yawned tiredly and stretched, pulling out a chair from a nearby table and collapsing in it. "I need a vacation."

"That reminds me." Vincent went to get off stage and completely misjudged his footing, stepping right off the stage and falling over onto the floor. Everyone gave him a slight frown as he got up and continued speaking as if nothing had happened. "I'll be-

"You okay?" Bonnie asked.

"What do you mean?" Vincent frowned.

"You just straight up face planted into the floor." Mike blinked.

"Oh okay. Anyway, I'll be gone for a while. About two weeks, maybe a month at the most." He turned and started heading off towards the dark closet he spent most of his hours alone in.

"…Where are you going, exactly?" Freddy asked, tossing nervous glances with the others.

"Just around." He said without looking back. "Here, there, maybe everywhere. I also want to study more in psychology and the relations between a person's brain and their soul."

"And you're going in your ghost form…right?" Bonnie asked.

Vincent paused. "How else would I go? As a ghost I can be invisible to everyone…it…only makes sense…?"

"Are you going to Disneyland?" Chris asked eagerly. "Can we come with you?"

"No, and no. It'd be better if you all stayed here."

"Wait you're leaving _now_?" Chica asked.

Vincent frowned. "Yes. Why wouldn't I? I don't need to pack. Or pay for airline tickets or gas or a train tickets or anything, really."

"Can you bring us back something?" Laura asked.

The old animatronic sighed and gave her an encouraging look. "I'll try. I can't exactly bring back a trunk full of treasures. People are going to start noticing floating objects and that's bad for…people." He turned on his heel once more and strode off into the dark hidden closet.

The others waited with their eyes on the path he'd taken until they were sure that the spirit had gone and the old yellow suit was limp and lifeless once more before speaking.

"We should throw a party." Bonnie said.

"Agreed."

After a lonely walk down the dawn-coated town, Mike opened the door to his house tiredly and tried to avoid his dog who was camping out right in front of the doorway. Rolling his eyes, Mike rolled Spike over with his foot. The Doberman growled softly, but twitched his foot and figured it wasn't worth barking about.

Marionette was still asleep on the sofa, her back facing the door. Mike was just about to wake her when she jumped up with a short scream as if someone had gone to attack her.

"Hey keep it down! You tryin' to wake up the whole neighborhood?"

"S-s-sorry…" She stammered, shivering violently. "I just…had a nightmare, that's all."

"I'll say." He raised his eyes, heading into the other room for a drink. "You've been dying in your dreams too?"

"…Yes…" Marionette murmured distantly, wrapping her arms around herself.

Mike paused, remembering that she was supposed to be dead and deactivated, like Mangle was. According to all of the others it was a sheer mystery as to how she'd been alive the whole time, and why she was asleep the whole time.

"What was it like?" He asked.

"Terrible." She sniffed, automatically knowing what he was referring to. "It might've been better if I wasn't alone."

"What do you mean?"

"We were put in isolation." She explained. "The staff didn't know how defective we were. They didn't want us around children for obvious reasons, but they kept us from the other animatronics because they were afraid our malfunctions might spread…kind of like a disease."

Mike frowned. "But…_You_ didn't attack anyone."

"No, but I was with Mangle when it happened." She shrugged. "Maybe they thought I was an accomplice or something."

"So they just….kept you away from…everyone? For how long?"

"Just a few days. But that was enough." She chuckled wryly and sniffed again. "I didn't know anything that was going on. I only got snippets of conversation from the staff about closing down and when they were going to deactivate me. Then one night two other employees came in and shut us both down. It wouldn't be so bad if I'd gotten to see my best friend again but even then things were…bad. Everything was just so horrible and confusing."

Mike gave a nod. He supposed things _would've_ been rough around that time. Not only were they all trying to solve a murder, they were also confused as to why their friend would attack someone so violently. He could imagine some trust issues evolving around that time…especially if it was your best friend who did it. "Sorry you had to go through that…what with your best friend being tampered with."

Marionette frowned slightly at him as if she was confused, then gave her head a brisk shake and nodded. "Yeah, it's okay….Even after we ran through Mangle and Foxy's gears and found out how messed up and tangled they were, she still blamed herself entirely."

"That's another thing that's confusing." Mike frowned. "Mangle and Foxy's gears were both messed up bad, because Vincent had tampered with them, but how come Mangle actually attacked someone and Foxy didn't? I know you guys aren't like your regular animatronics…but you're still robots…and if a robot is programmed to do something, the only way it can be stopped is if it's shut down or reprogrammed…right?"

Marionette blinked at him. "No one knows why Foxy didn't attack anyone. We checked his gears and programs several times, both his and Mangle's were set the same. There's really no explanation as to why he _didn't_ attack anyone."

Mike swallowed and rubbed his forehead. "Hey isn't your programming like your brain…? And isn't damage to your programming like brain damage…? And since brain damage is serious and never really goes away-

"You're thinking too hard." Marionette shook her head with a slight smile. "No, _our_ programming isn't like our brain. We weren't made to run on programming at all, as far as I can remember. When we checked the programs on Mangle and Foxy, we found nothing other than the virus Vincent caused. And since we're robots, we were able to completely remove the bug, fix the wires, and straighten out the gears in both of them."

"Wait a minute. You just said 'because we're special, we can do this' and then you said 'but because we're robots, we can do this'." He frowned again. "You're counterclaiming your- you're giving me a headache."

Marionette chuckled. "We're built differently, that's all." She smiled. "You're built with bones and flesh, and I'm built with bolts and screws. But we can both be sad and cry, and be happy and laugh, and be scared and scream, and be angry and yell, and….y'know. Normal stuff."

"Right. Normal stuff." Mike rolled his eyes and yawned.

Marionette stretched. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing much. I've got to go talk to Clove about where she got the snow globe because no one recognizes the song it plays and everyone's freaking out about it." He rolled his eyes. "And Vincent's gone, so you can go back to the pizzeria and not be in my house anymore ever."

She frowned. "Gone? What do you mean, gone?"

"He's going on a trip around…somewhere."

"For how long?"

"I don't know he said around two weeks to a month. Plenty of time for you to get used to that hidden room and not my couch." He yawned again. "I'm going to bed. Remember to wake me up around...that time that….you know…" His voice trailed off as he left the room.

Marionette sat on the couch, still frowning, and threw a glance at the snow globe that now sat on the coffee table. Awoken by the earlier conversation, Spike followed her gaze and gave the glass a strange look before nuzzling Marionette's hand.

"What do you want?" She asked him.

At the sound of her voice, his ears twitched and he wagged his stubby tail, fixing her with a brown eyed stare. She leaned back into the couch and scratched his head with a sigh.

"You're so fat." She told him. Again, she threw a glance at the snow globe. "It's strange." She murmured. "I know I've never seen it before but…why does it look so familiar?" She took the artifact in her hands hand traced the engraved words with her finger, as if studying an ancient treasure. Spike gave the glass a sniff and a lick.

Marionette shooed him off. "Go eat something else." She frowned down at the snow globe, reading the words in the plaque in her head. _Pirate Cove…_ Her eyes widened. _How could this have even been created if Pirate Cove didn't exist until later on? And how could Foxy even be featured in it? The only people who knew he even existed back then were the staff, Mike, and our maker._

**Runnin' out of things to say in the author note. I wonder how you people would react if I killed someone. I would laugh. So hard. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Alright. I have absolutely nothing to say in this authors note I don't really know why I write these but apparently it's supposed to be a form of communication between me and the people who read my story…? So I guess that means if you have any ideas for my story put it in the review section or whatever…? I'm probably just gonna end up throwin random crap into this story to see how you fan people react to it. This should be a fun…experiment…**

"Mike you should get another dog." Marionette said the next morning, lying on the carpet beside the fat Doberman.

Mike took a sip from his coffee mug. "And you should get off the floor and do something productive."

"I'm serious." She rolled onto her back and looked up at him, viewing everything upside down. "Spike's lonely. I can see it in his big fat dog eyes."

"No thank you. I'm still trying to get rid of the _last_ thing that crawled into my house." He frowned slightly, looking at his dog. "Spike isn't that fat."

"Yes he is! He can be a _whale_ if he tried!" Marionette shoved the sleepy dog lightly. "Go, Spike. Be a whale." She rolled the dog over onto his back and he lazily kicked out with half-motivated dog legs. "You know, they say that after a while, you start to look like your dog." She looked at Mike. "Fat dog."

Mike rolled his eyes. "He's active when he needs to be." But his words weren't backed up as his dog, lying on his back, started drooling from his drooping upper lip. "I mean I think he is."

Marionette gave him an unimpressed look. "Fat dog."

"Well _you're_ not much different. I haven't seen you doing anything productive since I was a kid." He raised his eyebrows at her. "All you do now is sit on my couch and eat all of the food in my pantry." When she scowled, he continued. "You're a fat dog too, but on the inside." He tipped his head to her with a thin-lipped, snarky grin. "Fat dog."

"Well what am I _supposed_ to do?" She barked back. "I can't go outside unless I wear a vampire cloak!"

"So wear a vampire cloak. My neighbors won't talk _to_ you; they'll just talk _about_ you amongst each other." Mike shrugged. "Unless you run into Helen, then she'll yell at you for associating with me and my dog."

"But I want to hang out with my friends." Marionette groaned, rolling onto her stomach again. "I only have a few of them left to actually communicate with."

"Well then just go live in that closet."

"But it's _dark_ in there. And _lonely_."

"You'll have Vincent when he gets back." Mike shrugged. "I mean he isn't my first choice at a conversation buddy, but according to the _others_ he used to be a pretty lively guy."

"Key term: _Used_ to be. As in, not anymore. People tend to get a little less fun after they, y'know, murder five children." She folded her arms. "And I tend to, y'know, not appreciate people who do things like that."

"He was schizo-psycho-crazy he didn't know what he was doing." Mike sighed. "Didn't he say he had some kind of accident?"

Marionette rolled her eyes with a little nod. "He was in a car wreck and got a really bad head injury." She sat up and crossed her arms again, glowering. "It's not easy you know. When someone goes from being your friend, to a psychopath, and then to a depressed, socially awkward_ dead person_."

Mike groaned. "He'll come around, probably."

"…Eh…"

"C'mon, I mean, as long as you guys will be supportive and say cheesy inspirational things he'll be chill, right?"

She squinted. "…Eh…"

"You're going to need a more positive attitude than 'eh' if you want him to be normal again." Mike rolled his eyes.

"I never said that!" Marionette frowned.

"Wait, so you want him to be miserable, cause I thought everyone was over the-"

"I never said that, either!"

"Okay, okay, wait, slow down, hold up, wait a minute, calm down." He raised his hand. "Okay, so you all still hate him for being a former murderer?"

"Uh…no…?"

"Okay, so you're trying to make him feel better about the person he once was?"

"Uh…no…?"

"So you still want him to suffer then, right?"

"Uh…no…?"

Mike frowned. "Do you hate him?"

"….No."

"Do you like him?"

"….No."

"Okay, so you're semi-kinda-in-the-middle type of thing right?"

She slowly shook her head and put her hands on her face in frustration. "I don't…is this a trick question?"

"What the he-"Mike groaned slightly and threw back his head. "If you hate him, that's okay. If you like him, that's okay. There isn't any right or wrong-"

"Wait define like. You mean like 'Oh yeah, we're cool' or do you mean like, _like_ like."

"What? No! When did I mention that ever?"

"Okay, okay, okay, okay! Never mind, shut up, I messed up."

"Why did you ask, I mean do you…?"

"No, SHUT UP, I misinterpreted you I didn't know the point you were trying to get me to understand." She shook her head.

"There is no point! I'm asking you a question!"

"No, I asked you a question."

"No, I asked _you_ a question, then you asked me a stupid question, and now I'm still waiting for you to answer the previous question."

Marionette frowned slightly. "And that is…?"

"Do you hate Vincent?" Mike asked again.

"No." She squinted.

"So you like him, and not in the weird way?"

"No."

Mike threw back his head and groaned.

She shrugged and squinted again. "I don't know."

"How do you not know the way you feel about someone?! It's not that hard!" Mike ran a hand through his short hair. "For example, I like Foxy, he's my friend, and I hate Helen, my next door neighbor." He waved his hands at her. "IT'S THAT SIMPLE!"

"No it's not because I don't know the right answer!"

"THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER!"

"So what if I said I liked him, how would you react?" Marionette glued her hands to her hips.

"Okay, fine, whatever, good for you, make him feel better about his real self, that's great, I guess!"

"See? See?! You 'guess'! What do you mean, 'you guess'?!"

"WHAT THE HE-"

"Do YOU like him?" Marionette asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I don't know him as well as you guys do! I barely ever talk to him and when I do he's sad and quiet all the time! But I never hear stories about what he used to be like from any of you guys so," Mike threw his hands up. "Yeah. I guess I like him. He seems pretty chill to me."

"Okay, so what if I told you I hate him?"

"Fine with me I mean you guys have all been put through a lot of stress so I guess I couldn't blame you if you downright wanted him to suffer for all of eternity." Mike shrugged.  
"What if I wanted him to suffer…but I didn't want _him_ to suffer?"

"Okay, _that's_ a trick question." Mike leaned back in his recliner. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what if I wanted the bad-guy Vincent to suffer, but the good-guy Vincent to go back to normal?"

"That makes perfect sense." He gave a nod. "I understand that."

"So how would I grant myself this wish?" She asked.

"…I don't know. I mean, both the bad-guy and the good-guy suffered physically in his death, but I think that's all you're going to find of the bad-guy suffering. Because, y'know, he's all fixed up now." Mike shrugged. "If you want to, when he gets back, you can still torture him. Not physically, but emotionally. All you need to do is just bring up every little terrible thing he did when he was insane and he'll just lose it."

"You've done that before?" Marionette frowned at him slightly.

"No, but from what the ghost-kids tell me it doesn't take a little of nothin' to get his water works going."

She squinted. "Seriously?"

"Well I mean it's only been a few weeks after he died and realized that he lost almost his entire adulthood to a mental disorder, the guilt's eating him alive, probably." He shrugged. "I mean I know I'd feel that way."

"Oh…I didn't really think about that." She tapped her chin.

Mike frowned. "Have you even _spoken_ to him since 87?"

"Not…really."

"I thought you had to spend an entire day with him in the hidden room…?"

"I did."

He shook his head slightly. "You mean to tell me you spent NINE HOURS in a room. Alone. With Vincent. Doing absolutely nothing."

"…So?" Marionette folded her arms and slouched in a defensive way. "Nothing is better than something, sometimes."

"Seriously, you didn't do _anything_? No talking, no card games, _nothing_?" Mike asked. "For _nine_ _hours_?"

Marionette nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Why?" He laughed nervously. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't know what to say!"

"How about 'Hey, Vincent, I haven't spoken to you in a little over a decade, how've you been?' or 'I've been asleep for a long time, what's modern technology like?'" Mike shrugged. "It's not that hard."

"Yes it is! Because-" she cut herself off with a frustrated squeak. "That's all just surface conversation! That's all just stuff to block out all of the deep stuff!"

"You don't have to talk about the deep stuff to carry on a conversation with him- you guys used to be friends right?"

Marionette frowned very quickly. "Who told you that?"

Mike blinked in confusion. "What? The others did. I thought they said Vincent was a really good friend to all of you before he was crazy?"

"Oh…Yeah I guess."

"Yeah 'you guess'?" Mike put his hands on his hips and mimicked her voice in a mocking tone. "You 'guess'! What do you mean, 'you guess'?!"

She gave him a retaliating look and he mirrored her expression. They glowered back at each other like that, neither looking away, as if it was a challenge to keep eye contact. Spike, who had been napping nearby, waddled up to them. He threw a glance from his owner, to his guest, and wagged his stump of a tail, giving Marionette's face several dog-kisses. She squinted and tried to turn her head away and Mike laughed.

"So," Marionette started, trying to push the Doberman's slick muzzle away from her face. "Clove showed you the old warehouse you're supposed to check out?"

"Sort of…" Mike shrugged. "She _drove_ me by there. She said she had something busy to do, so I only got a glimpse of it, really."

"Did you ask her if she wrote the song? The music box melody?"

"_Snow_ _globe_ melody." He corrected. "And no, she told me she didn't write it." He took a sip from his now lukewarm coffee. "I'm actually kind of relieved at that."

"So…how did she say she tampered with it?" Marionette pressed.

"All she did was fix the screw and the spinning boat."

"That's it? She didn't add or take away anything?"

"No." Mike frowned. "Why?"

"Just wondering." Marionette shrugged it off, nearly forgetting that Mike was oblivious to the fact that Pirate Cove used to be Parts and Service. Her theory was something she'd have to share with the others when he was out of earshot.

Thunder rumbled from outside, soon followed by the constant drum roll of rain on the rooftop. Marionette stole a glance out the window and saw that the world beyond was a gray, drippy blur.

"Yeesh, sure hope this rain lets up before I have to go to work." Mike grumbled.

"Why don't you just drive to work?" Marionette asked. "You've got a nice ride sitting in your garage."

Mike shrugged. "It's a pretty short driving distance, and I guess it saves money walking. That and I don't really go many places other than work and the park and those are both within a fairly easy walking distance."

"Then why do you have a _motorcycle_ _and_ a car?" She folded her hands on her hips. "Honestly, they look like they've never been used."

"Haven't taken the motorcycle out for a spin yet. I won it a few years ago in a drawing." He leaned back. "I might take it out in about two or three…"

She shrugged. "When are you going to check out the warehouse?"

"I don't know, probably sometime before the party." Mike rubbed the back of his neck.

"Party?" She echoed.

"I forgot, you weren't there. We're having a 'no Vincent' party today."

Marionette quirked an eyebrow and gave a chuckle. "That sounds kind of mean."

"Yeah well…" He shrugged.

She looked out the window again as thunder growled overhead again. "What do you want to do?" She asked, rolling onto her back again.

"Nothing productive."

"We could play a game." Her eyes brightened slightly.

"What kind of game? Like a verbal game or a board game…?" A grin crossed his face. "Let's play 'never have I ever'."

She blinked and the interested spark in her eye was quickly extinguished. "Why that one?"

"Because." He sat up and leaned forward. "It'll be funny."

"I don't want to play that game."

"Why not? Did you do something _bad_?" He quirked his eyebrows with a wide grin.

"No." She muttered as he laughed, but she folded her arms in a defensive way.

"Okay, what about truth or dare, then?"

She gave him a look. "Really? I swear to God, you're still a child."

"What? What makes you say that?"

"Mike your only friends are the animatronics from your childhood. Think about that."

He opened his mouth to respond, when a small, rickety voice from across the room cut him off. Spike pricked his ears and Marionette turned her head to give it attention.

_ K-k-k _said the music box.

"NO!" Mike lunged forward, towards the little coffee table by the sofa, but ended up doing a face plant into the carpet as the snow globe's melody wound to life. He tried desperately to push himself off of the floor, but the music fogged his senses and just like that, he was out.

Marionette started at him with a slight frown. "…Mike?" She shoved him gently and when he didn't budge, she threw a glance at the snow globe again. "Dang…That's…_weird_." Sighing slightly, she got up, shoved a throw pillow under his head, and draped a blanket across his back. She then called to Spike. "C'mon, fat dog number one, let's leave fat dog number two to sleep." And with the dog at her side, she walked out onto the back porch to watch the storm.

"Where are they?" Chica asked, looking at the clock whilst setting a cake on the table. "They should be here any minute."

Bonnie shook his head, strumming his instrument lightly. "Are you sure we need all of this food? I mean it is just the six of us."

"There's nothing wrong with leftovers." She shrugged, trying to find room on the table for another bottle of soda.

"Right, unless, you know, the management starts to question why on Earth there's so much left over food and questions lead to assumptions and assumptions lead to pointing fingers and that leads to bad things." Freddy shrugged.

"Why do we have to keep pretending to be idiot robots?" Bonnie asked. "Why can't we just parade around town like normal people?"

Foxy, Freddy, and Chica frowned at him slightly.

"I mean," He chuckled. "We're freaking robots, what are they gonna do?"

"…Shut us down?" Freddy squinted.

"Why? We didn't do anything."

Foxy half-laughed and shrugged. "I dunno, then."

"Well y'know what?" Bonnie grinned. "Tomorrow's Saturday, right? Screw this place, I'm gonna walk around town and see what's what."

"No, you're not." Freddy rolled his eyes.

"Watch me, Fred-bear."

"We probably should know what our own town looks like." Chica tapped her chin. "We've been here…how long?"

Foxy nodded. "Yeah, the only of us who really knows what it looks like is-

The sound of the front door opening cut him off and from down the hallway two voices called out in greeting . The four animatronics turned their heads to see Mike and Marionette walking into the room.

"That's a lot of food." Mike said, eyeing the table.

"Yeah, better not let fat dog near all that." Marionette gestured to Mike and fell into a seat beside Freddy.

"I'm not fat!" Mike defended himself, looking sheepish.

Bonnie looked him up and down and squinted. "Nah, he's not fat, he's scrawny."

"Not _that_ scrawny," Freddy shrugged. "But it's obvious he's not very strong."

Mike, arms folded and wearing an offended-but-trying-to-look-bored expression, rolled his eyes. "Can we just get going to the warehouse already?"

Freddy blinked at him. "You've got two arms and legs that aren't broken. Why don't you just go yourself? You know what to look for."

Mike shuffled his feet and looked at the ground, flushing slightly in embarrassment. "Well I don't want to go _alone_."

Bonnie grinned in mock sympathy. "Awww does little Mikey need a walking buddy?" Mike frowned and flushed more, causing Bonnie to laugh. "Does little Mikey need someone to hold his hand-"

"Bonnie go with him." Freddy said without looking up from shuffling a deck of cards.

"_What_? Why _me_?" Bonnie nearly dropped his instrument.

"I thought you loved going outside of the restaurant." Freddy quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Who died and made you king of the restaurant?"

"My _name_ is on the FRONT OF THE BUILDING!" He threw his hand out to gesture to the front door.

"I'll go too." Foxy said, taking his feet off of the table and slinging an arm around Mike, who looked relieved to see that his friend was joining him.

"Marionette, you wanna come with us?" Bonnie asked, climbing off of the stage. "You've been out and about around the town more than any of us animatronics have."

"Go back to a warehouse?" The little animatronic shuddered, looking haunted. "No. I spent too long in one of those."

"You don't know if it's the same warehouse." Freddy pointed out.

"I assume they're all dark and cold and full of junk." She shook her head. "Not taking any chances."

"Suit yourself." Bonnie shrugged, following Mike and Foxy to the front entrance an out the front door.

It was nice to be out in the fresh air again, but this time it was much colder and the night breeze brought a sudden chill with it.

"Yeesh," Bonnie said. "What happened to the warm weather?"

"It comes and goes." Mike pulled his jacket tighter around him, starting off out of the parking lot and made a right, heading towards the night lights of the small town. "There's a little road up here, before we reach the town, and if we stay on it, we should end up at the warehouse."

"How long is the walk?" Bonnie asked, the irritation in his voice presenting itself like a sour cake.

"Not that long, it's actually pretty nice down there."

"And the warehouse, you went into it?" Foxy added, his eye following a car that rushed past them.

"No, Clove was in a hurry. But it looks abandon to me. There's no company name on it or anything so I at least _assume_ it's abandon." Mike said, taking a turn on a small, dark street that was still a good distance from the rest of the illuminated town. The sounds of passing cars died down and soon enough the silence was filled with rustling of tree branches and the night breeze.

"It's…kind of dark down here…isn't it?" Bonnie asked, looking at a house that was just barely visible through the trees and moonlight. "I thought you said it was nice."

"It is." Mike said, obliviously looking up at the sky. "There's a lot of trees."

"Not a lot of people." Foxy commented.

"Sure, there's people." Mike said, looking at an old, worn down, utterly abandon house hidden behind several oak trees. "There…used to be people."

"This place gives me the creeps." Bonnie scowled at an unknown rustling in the undergrowth. "Cut your flashlight on, I can't see a thing."

"I can't do that, there's people sleeping." Mike said, gesturing to another cabin on their left. "Besides, if you ask me, it's the big cities that are dangerous at night."

"Lad's got a point." Foxy added. "If someone's chasin' ye in the woods, ye can use the dark n' the unkown to your advantage."

"I just… think it looks prettier." Mike shrugged, turning his head to the sound of an owl.

"If you like dark and creepy." Bonnie said. He squinted at a faint light in the distance. "Is that it up there?"

"Nah, that's just a gas station. Actually," Mike reached into his pocket. "I'm gonna grab a drink, you guys want anything?"

Bonnie grinned menacingly. "Sure."

Foxy, who'd witnessed the earlier conversation, laid his hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "No."

Mike shrugged as they neared the gas station, which was stationed comfortably at a three way intersection. "Suit yourself."

As he walked off, Bonnie turned to Foxy with a bored expression. "This is stupid."

"How so?" Foxy asked.

"Are you kidding me? He walks at a rate slower than the time it took for Marionette to realize and accept that Vincent was the murderer." Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

Foxy nodded slightly, remembering _that_ whole scenario. "Yeah that was depressin'."

"Yeah." Bonnie crossed his arms and threw a look at the gas station. "I wish there was something we had to speed this along."

Not ten minutes later, Mike returned to them, trying to cram a soda bottle in his coat pocket.

"Which way do we go?" Foxy asked. "Left or straight forward." Both streets looked dark and ominous.

"Straight forward." Mike said. "It's not far now, there aren't many houses past this point."

"There ain't much of nothin' past this point." Foxy said uncertainly as the gas station's lights began to fade.

Bonnie turned to the night guard. "Mike are you aware that we could murder you right here right now and no one would ever know it was us or care enough to try and solve the mystery?"

"…Yes."

"And you're not scared?"

Mike shrugged. "You aren't going to do that."

"Are you sure about that?"

Mike felt a hand laid on each of his shoulders. He paused and turned around to them. "What is this?"

Bonnie rubbed the back of his head. "Listen, Mike, you've really figured out a lot about this whole murder mystery and we've been thinking…what if you went and ranted this all to the police? The restaurant could be shut down for good. And us…we could be deactivated for good. So we just figured you'd…stop knowing."

Foxy ran a finger across his hook with a grim nod.

"B-but I thought…" Mike stammered, panic building up in him. He'd lead them to the perfect spot. There was no one around to witness it, and he knew if he tried to run, they'd easily catch him.

"You're a good guy and all, Mike," Bonnie said. "We're not too keen on this either, but…we just have to do this."

"Sorry, lad." Foxy raised his hook and Mike flinched.

"Just kidding." Bonnie burst out laughing along with Foxy, pointing at the night guard with a cruel grin. Mike blinked and frowned slightly.

"I-it was a joke…?"

"You should've seen the look on your _face_!" Bonnie howled. "Your eyes were so big!"

"Oy, lad, I started feelin' sorry for ye about halfway through." Foxy clapped his friend on the shoulder. "We were just tryin' to scare ye'."

"That's not…funny." Mike folded his arms and flushed in embarrassment at falling for the prank.

"It's _hilarious_!" Bonnie slapped his knee. "I wish we'd had a camera or something."

"Alright lad, I can see ye ain't laughin'." Foxy said, grinning and throwing an arm across Mike's shoulders. "C'mon let's head to that warehouse o' yers."

"Technically, it's not my warehouse. I just drove by it earlier." Mike shrugged.

"Are we close?" Bonnie asked, looking through the dark woods. "Because I don't see any more houses or nothing. Mike I swear if you get us lost, I _will_ murder you."

"No ye won't." Foxy told him. "Not while I'm here."

Bonnie rolled his eyes, folding his arms and muttering something inaudible.

"Freddy ain't around, right?" the pirate grinned. "So that means I can swear if I want to…" He rubbed his chin.

"No ye won't." Bonnie snapped, mocking Foxy's voice. "Not while _I'm_ here."

"Point taken."

Through the night, they could make out a large dark building. It lurked ominously amongst oak trees and coated itself in tendrils of ivory. As a cold breeze passed through, the structure itself seemed to sway with the tree tops.

"…Is _that_ it?" Bonnie asked. The closer and closer they got, the creepier and creepier the building began to look. Weeds were growing up the rusting, rotting, dying chain-link fence that surrounded the building. The front lights were shattered and filled with the nests and webs of bugs.

"Yep, this is the place." Mike said. "It looks creepier at night, doesn't it?"

"And Clove comes here…_how_ often?" Foxy asked.

"Once a week, I think she said. She says she comes in here with her dad to fix up old radios and contraptions that were left in here." The guard shrugged and walked up to the grimy, dirt plastered front doors. "Well, come on."

Foxy and Bonnie exchanged an uncertain look and a shrug and followed their friend into the building.

Inside the air was musty and had an old, ancient feeling about it. Through the very back window, moonlight was trying desperately to filter through the grime on the glass. Hardly visible were high rising aisles of boxed and unboxed…junk.

"This isn't abandon." Bonnie scratched his head. "Abandon would mean completely empty. This place is just…_forgotten_."

Foxy squinted. "Can't see a thing! Ain't there lights in here?"

"Yeah I think…" Mike walked over to the wall next to the front door and felt around for a light switch. His fingers skimmed over something rough and before he knew it, lights overhead were slowly warming up, casting a faint, old, bronze light throughout the building. He jumped as an ugly roach crawled over his shoe and scurried away into the shadows.

"Now what?" Bonnie asked.

"S'pose we could split up." Foxy said looking around. "Mike and I could take the left half, and you could search around over there."

"Whatever." Bonnie shrugged and headed off into the right section of the ancient building alone. As he walked through the old, dusty aisles, he got a depressing feeling from the junk he saw crammed onto the shelves. Old dolls, old china, broken clocks, lamps, pillows, children's blankets and toys, and even a few music boxes were stuffed or thrown carelessly beside each other. He picked up a small elegantly painted wooden box and lifted the top. From within, a little ballerina came to life and began spinning to an old, dormant melody. Behind her was a tiny mirror bearing Bonnie's reflection. _Is this just a place where people come to give up things that they don't want anymore? But why not throw them out…?_

Something in the mirror caught his attention. He set the music box down and turned around. On the bottom of the shelf behind him was a cardboard box with the words 'Good Morning' written on it in crooked, almost deranged handwriting. Curious, Bonnie pulled the box out from its shelf. It was empty.

"What the…?"

"Not if I can help it!" Mike's voice cried from above.

"What?" Bonnie tilted his head up to the ceilings. Balancing splendidly on the beams and rafters was the night guard, having abandoned his security-guard cap for his red bandana. He looked down briefly.

"Oh, hey Bonnie."

"Mike are you playing pirate with Foxy?"

Mike blinked and his face fell. "No."

"I take it you forfeit the fight then?!" Foxy called from across the building.

"Never!" With light footsteps, the man raced across the beam towards the sound of his friend's voice.

Bonnie shook his head. "I swear…that guy is never growing up." He turned his attention back to the box again. _I don't understand…what is this supposed to be? _Maybe whatever the box contained had been removed by a visitor to the warehouse, or maybe someone had written the phrase on the box for no reason. But for the strangest reason, Bonnie couldn't pull himself away from it. He felt like it might have some sort of meaning to it…As he shifted the box again, a little pocket journal slid off of the shelf beside it and onto the floor. Frowning slightly, Bonnie picked it up and opened the front cover. The name inside gave him a slap on the face.

Written in neat cursive on the inside cover were the words 'Jeremy Fitzgerald (1987)'.

"Jeremy?" Bonnie flipped through a few pages and read the ancient cursive in his head.

_'I had to shut down the Marionette today. Jack was shutting down Mangle and Vincent was supposed to shut down the Marionette, but he told me he had some trouble with her. Personally, I don't think he had the guts to do it. Which doesn't surprise me; the guy wouldn't hurt a fly. But…it felt awful. I felt like I just killed someone. I felt so guilty I couldn't shut her down fully. I did something to her sleep mode…I think I put her into a coma or something….I don't even know when she'll wake up…so I'm going to put her in the old warehouse.'_

Bonnie flipped ahead a few pages and read on, throwing a glance at the cardboard box.

_'I've been having nightmares ever since I shut Mari down. I can still hear the screaming in my sleep. I feel even guiltier now, so I went to the warehouse to see if she had activated. She was still there inactivated, but she was still alive…Alive…that's a funny word….'_

Bonnie skipped ahead a few pages to where Jeremy had abandon his cursive writing for regular print.

_'Marionette still hasn't woken up, and the nightmares won't go away. I feel terrible. I don't know if should wake her up myself, I don't know how. It's been three years- they even shut down the Fazbear place, but somehow I feel like it's not over. The mysteries aren't solved and I'm just so confused….'_

An uneasy feeling crawling through his fur, Bonnie skipped ahead and read on.

_'I'm starting to hear voices. When I'm awake, not just when I sleep. She keeps screaming. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what she wants me to do, what THEY want me to do. She's still sleeping and I don't even know when she's going to wake up. And what happens if she does wake up? What do I do with her then? Maybe when she does wake up, she could shed some light on these twisted rumors I've been hearing about.'_

As the pages progressed, Jeremy's neat print began to falter.

_'I'm going insane. I know it. I can feel it. The voices won't go away, the nightmares won't stop. I know I need to see a doctor, but no one would understand. They were different; they weren't like normal…robots. Vincent knew that, he was close with them. But I can't find him anywhere. I don't know what to do anymore.'_

With every turn of a page, the handwriting became worse and worse and the words slowly began to decline from journal entries to the deranged scribbles of a crazy man. Bonnie stopped at the last page, deciphering the senseless scribble with difficulty.

_'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't fix it, there's nothing I can do for you anymore. I don't know when this coma's going to pass over; I don't even know what time it'll be when it does. I'm going out for a drive this afternoon. I don't know much about anything anymore, but don't worry… By the time the car has stopped, some justice will have come to you. So in the event you wake again, good morning." _

Bonnie blinked. The words on the box were a message for the person who had been sleeping inside of it. He read the last two sentences with a sick feeling churning his gears. _By the time the car has stopped…by the time the car has stopped… _He felt a weight fall into the pit of his stomach as he recalled something his look alike Bon had told him just a few weeks ago_. "It's about Jeremy- he was in a bad car accident this weekend. He's dead." _ Bonnie stared at the scribble in the journal. "I don't believe it…He-" He stopped dead as he lowered the journal from his vision. Right in front of him was a young, pale, transparent figure with a security guard cap and big round eyes with a haunted look in them.

"J-Jeremy?"

The ghost said nothing, just looked at Bonnie miserably.

Bonnie looked at the journal and the box. "It wasn't your fault, Jeremy, you were just following orders, no one blames you. Look, you want to talk to everyone? C'mon back to the restaurant, we've all been kinda worried about you, actually."

Jeremy's ghost silently floated away down the aisle, his round eyes still fixed on Bonnie. The journal still in his hand, Bonnie followed him through the warehouse down several aisles until Jeremy paused around the middle of an aisle close to the back of the warehouse. He reached into the shelf beside him and pulled out a large, dusty book with a semi-thick spine. Silently, he handed it to Bonnie.

"You want me to have this?"

Jeremy didn't speak, the corners of his mouth twitched upward into what could've been a smile. But it was gone so quickly, it could've never happened.

Bonnie opened the cover of the large book, which looked like it might completely fall apart at any minute, and what he saw on the first page warmed his gears.

"Thank you…" Bonnie said, looking up. Jeremy's ghost had vanished. Frowning, Bonnie looked all around him, but there was no sign of him anywhere. He closed the book and opened the journal again, turning to the last page. Beneath the senseless scribble, written in neat cursive, was a simple sentence with a drawing of a smiling face: '_Take care of that kid. –Jeremy'_

"…Kid…?" Bonnie squinted.

"Hey Bonnie! We're leaving, did you wanna stay here?" Mike called from the front of the warehouse.

Bonnie chuckled. "Goodbye, Jeremy." As he followed the sounds of his friends' voices, he obliviously passed by a cardboard box, bearing the words 'See you soon' in neat cursive handwriting.

"Whatcha got there?" Foxy asked, gesturing to the old book in Bonnie's hand.

He shrugged. "Souvenir."

"Yeah I saw some pretty cool stuff in here, we're gonna have to come back so I can steal stuff." Mike said, turning the lights off and walking out of the front door.

"Y'know what they say: one man's trash is another man's treasure!" Foxy chuckled, following them out of the warehouse and shutting the door on the dark, old place.

"Well it's about TIME you three showed up!" Chica said as the trio walked into the room. "We were wondering where you all were!"

"Did you find anything?" Freddy asked, sitting up and looking at them eagerly.

"Uh…technically you didn't really specify what exactly it was we were looking for…" Mike shoved his hands into his pockets "So…no, we didn't find anything."

Freddy hung his head. "Why."

"What've you got there, Bonnie?" Chica asked her friend, glancing at the ugly, tattered book in his paws.

"A souvenir." Bonnie said simply, patting the book.

"What is it?" Marionette asked, reaching out to take it from him.

"Nothing." He raised it up out of her reach and marched towards the dark hallway.

"Where are you taking it?" Chica asked, frowning after him.

"Vincent's room for safe keeping." He replied, not looking back.

"Forming a secret stash are we?" Freddy quirked an eyebrow in his direction, but Bonnie had already vanished. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Foxy and Mike. "So you found nothing, then? Absolutely nothing about the music box?"

"Snow globe." Mike corrected.

"Nah, we didn't find nothin'." Foxy fell into a chair, kicking his feet up onto the table and cramming a slice of cake in his mouth.

Mike reached into his duffle bag by the table and pulled out a beer, popping the top off and taking a sip. Chica, Freddy, and Foxy gave him a stern look. "…What?"

"If you get drunk again…" Freddy started.

"Nah, don't worry about it, it's just one beer I promise."

"DEVIL'S WATER!" Marionette slapped the drink out of his hand and it spilled onto the floor.

"Really?" He looked at her, frustrated.

"No beer for you, no _nothin'_ for you!" She folded her arms. "This is why we don't have beer in the refrigerator at home."

"MY home, not _your_ home." Mike said strictly. "Your home is _here_."

"There's a select few people who are funny when they're drunk." Bonnie said, returning from the hidden room and falling into a chair. "Mike you are not one of them."

Foxy shook his head and Freddy murmured a disappointed agreement.

"I'll tell you who IS funny drunk though," Bonnie grinned with a half-chuckle.

"Don't." Marionette shook her head.

"We're not going to bring him up right now." Foxy muttered with a small laugh.

"Who are we talking about?" Mike asked.

Chica and Freddy exchanged a glance. "Just some night guard who had a few too many drinks on the job a long time ago. A long…long time ago."

"What did he do? Something bad?"

"Nah he just…said things." Foxy grinned.

"…Like?"

"For example," Bonnie took on a smug grin and threw his arm loosely around Marionette, and took on a slur to his voice. "Hey baby, whadda ya say you and I take the truck out for'a spin down at the rink? Don't worry, there aren't any red lights in the woods."

Marionette tightened her jaw and moved his arm from around her shoulders. "Oh you guys…you are…funny."

Freddy failed to conceal a snickering laugh. "Almost as funny as it was 23 years ago…"

Mike shifted. "What was it like at the old place…you guys don't really talk about it much, but you all say it was really great."

"It was really great." Chica nodded, swallowing a bit of cake. "We had Bon and Fred and Chi and Mangle…so we had more people to play songs with."

"What do you mean?"

"We used to play all kinds of popular songs together." She smiled. "Well…songs that were popular at the _time_. Some songs we didn't need as many people to play an instrument or sing. So those who weren't up on stage were dancing together." Her eyes sparked. "It was a lot of fun."

Freddy snickered. "As fun as Foxy trying to teach Jeremy how to dance?"

Foxy looked up with a half frown. "It wasn't me fault he fell down like that."

"Besides, Jeremy was jittery anyways." Chica pointed out.

"Really?" Mike asked. "You guys never cut the act with him?"

"No we cut the act, he just didn't believe us, I guess." Freddy shrugged. "Jeremy was jittery about everyone, everyday, all the time, everywhere."

"He actually needed Vincent to come in and 'help him out' a few nights because he was so scared." Chica chuckled.

Mike frowned. "Help him out with _what_?"

Foxy shook his head. "Nothin'. Jeremy just knew that Vincent knew us animatronics better than any of the other employees and I don't know…Guess the lad felt like we wouldn't scare 'em if Vincent was around."

"We tried to tell him over and over and _over_ again that we were just messing with him." Bonnie rolled his eyes. "You'd think that after he and…" Several stern looks thrown his way cut him off and he went to continue on as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I mean you'd think that after so many of us tried to tell him that we didn't mean any harm, he would've been pretty chill. He never spoke to us or _anything_."

"He didn't speak to anyone, really." Marionette murmured, sucking the frosting off of her finger. "He said a few things, but he was more of a quiet guy."

"And he only really talked to a select few people." Freddy added hastily. "Never said a word to me."

"Or me." Chica sighed.

"He said somethin' to me." Foxy rubbed his chin and Bonnie tossed a nod in his direction.

"Yeah I think he said one word to me. Probably something like 'No'."

Mike shrugged while a few pairs of eyes cast lightning fast glances to Marionette. "Never met him. So I can't really join in on the conversation."

Bonnie kicked his feet up on the table, nearly tipping over a can of soda. "That's kind of why we're having this conversation, so that you'll get a feel for what it was like for us back then."

"Preservin' the mem'ries, y'know?" Foxy stuffed his arms behind his head.

"What do you mean, preserving the memories?" Marionette frowned slightly, looking up. "He's not dead after only twenty years."

"Right, we're just saying 'preserving the memories of the good ol' days', you know; that kind of thing." Freddy said quickly. Three unsure glances were cast his way, but he took no notice of them.

She shrugged and looked down at her piece of cake again.

Bonnie continued off of what Freddy had said. "Yeah, better start talking about the good times again. I think we've been talking about the bad times enough."

**I'll be honest I got really lazy towards the end of this chapter. I didn't really know what to write, but this is supposed to be a funny story. So if you've got any suggestions or critiques for me that'd be pretty cool I guess.**


	13. Chapter 13

**I was hoping to have this done by the end of the summer, but at this rate I don't think that's going to be the case: which is severely a bad thing if you're me.**

Warm, morning light filtered through the windows of the building. Though the weather was chilly, the sun took pity on the little town and bathed it in soft morning heat. Gentle beams of orange, gold, and yellow filtered through the somewhat clean glass and pooled onto the black and white tile floor…and those who were sleeping on it.

Mike, half awoken by the slowly brightening day, groaned inwardly. He was about sick of the sun, trying to wake him up and make him productive. Lucky for him, he felt his dog's soft fur close beside him and wrapped his arm around his pet, grateful for the Doberman's laziness. And even luckier for him, Spike loved sleeping, so he wouldn't protest to his owner's touch. Unfortunately, instead of feeling his dog's muzzle being rested on his back, Mike heard a gruff voice that jerked him awake.

"What the bloody hell are ye doin, lad?"

Mike opened his eyes and looked up. Instead of lying in his bed with his arm slung across his Doberman, he was lying on the floor of the pizzeria with his arm slung across Foxy. He blinked at his friend, who was frowning at him with a concerned expression, and sat up. "I don't really know."

"Neither do I." Foxy said, thumping him across the forehead.

Mike looked around and rubbed his forehead. Freddy was snoring in a chair with his head slumped forward and half-shuffled cards in his paws. Across from him, Marionette was half-curled up on the table, having tried to cocoon herself into the table cloth and hugging it. Chica was slumped over asleep on the drums, a slice of pizza still clamped in her beak. Bonnie was sitting in a chair, swirling ice around his plastic cup of soda and looking down at Mike and Foxy with a somewhat bored expression.

"Morning, fellas." He said, propping a big bluish-purple foot onto his knee. "Sleep well?"

Foxy gave Mike a look that told him to pick his words carefully and the night guard rubbed his head, noticing that his hat was gone; a quick glance around the room told him that it had been left on the table. "I don't know….what happened? I don't remember falling asleep."

"Well," Bonnie took a sip of his soda. "For some reason, you started calling me 'rabbit' and I did not appreciate that very much at all. And then Chica went over to write a song, but she kept playing on the drums and Freddy told her 'You can't make a melody out of that', so Marionette stood up to go play on the keyboard and Freddy told her to sit down before he choked the hell out of her. And then he kept yelling at us to play poker and we didn't want to and Foxy fell asleep on the floor and then somebody threw something and Mike, you fell asleep on the table and I was still mad at you so I drug you over to sleep with Foxy just to see your face when you woke up." Still straight-faced, he took a gulp of soda. "And it was worth it."

"…That's it?" Foxy tipped his head, pushing himself off of the floor with tired limbs.

"Well…" Bonnie rubbed his chin. "I challenged Chica to see how much pizza she could eat while keeping tempo, and she fell asleep at two and a half pizzas. Freddy stopped yelling at us and two minutes later we heard him snoring over there. Marionette would _not_ shut up about the piano 'oh I looooved the piano, I used to play on it aaaaaall the tiiiiime'. She kept trying to burrow into the table cloth and then we just heard her sleep-talking the same thing over and over again…" He looked at Mike. "You sleep-move too, by the way."

"I do?" Mike frowned.

"At one point you crawled over Foxy and curled up into this really tight ball and started muttering really aggressively about a bus." Bonnie shrugged and Foxy laughed. "I don't know what you have against public transportation but hey," He raised his paws. "Don't let me offend you with my talk about busses."

"What about busses?" Freddy woke up with a snort, his voice foggy and his gaze still a bit dull.

"Mike hates public transportation."

"He hates _every_ form of transportation." Marionette groaned, burrowing deeper into her cocoon and covering her face. "It's why he walks everywhere."

"I do _not_!" Mike crossed his arms.

"Someone wake Chica up." Freddy yawned, gesturing towards the stage.

"Chica!" Bonnie called to her. "Hey! Chica!" He grabbed a pizza crust from the table and threw it at her, it popped the snare next to her.

"Mmffgggfff." She woke with a start, quickly chewing the pizza she had in her mouth.

Mike leaned back on his hands and yawned. "What time is it?"

"10:14." Bonnie said looking at the clock.

"WHAT?" He jumped up quickly.

"Mike quit shouting, I'm right here."

"I've got somewhere to be in 15 minutes!" He frantically popped his security guard cap onto his head and grabbed his duffle bag.

"Hey, what about me?" Marionette frowned, poking her head out of her burrow.

"Uh…uh…you'll have to come with me." Mike pulled a coat and a scarf out of his duffle bag. Quickly he draped the coat over her shoulders and wrapped the scarf around her neck, covering her mouth.

"Why do you bring all that with you?" Bonnie squinted.

"I get cold easily." Mike said.

Marionette coughed through the scarf.

"What's the matter, can you breathe?"

"It smells like _Mike_ in all of this!" She coughed. "Why can't I just walk home myself?"

"Or you could stay here…?" Freddy muttered with a frown.

"What if Vincent comes back?" Marionette asked him, then she looked back at Mike. "I know the way to your house."

"What if someone notices you or some mom by the park sees you walking alone and then she thinks you're a child and they go up to ask you 'hey, what's your name, where's your mom?' and then yeah." Mike slung his duffle bag over his shoulder. "Come on."

"Don't take the bus." Bonnie said.

Marionette groaned and yawned beneath the scarf, pulling her hood up over her head to shadow her eyes. "See you later, guys." She said to the others and jogged slightly to catch Mike, who was already walking out the door.

"Sorry I've got to leave so soon I've got to go to do the yeah, bye!" He called in a rushed voice, Marionette slipping out of the door before he closed it and locked it.

"Where are we going?" She asked him.

"I'm meeting Clove by the park, we're going to the warehouse again since she was so rushed yesterday." He explained briefly. "Yeesh it's cold outside! Hope you're happy and warm in there because I'm _freezing_."

"You're meeting Clove _again_? But you visited the warehouse yesterday with Foxy and Bonnie!" "Well we didn't do any searching while we were there."

"What _did_ you do?"

Mike thought back to the night before, running through the rafters with Foxy. "Nothing productive."

"Bonnie told me you were playing pirate again."

"Yeah? Well Bonnie doesn't know everything." Mike tightened the scarf around her neck. "Hey, keep covered!"

"Oh good grief Mike it's not like I've never had to disguise myself before!" She countered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean I've _been_ to more places than just the pizzeria, your house, and a warehouse." She tightened the hood over her head.

"Since when?" He looked at her, unconvinced.

"Since Vincent and Jeremy decided to take me out for little field trips around the town." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What do you mean? They just…took you out and about? Whenever and wherever you wanted to go?" Mike asked.

"They both worked the night shift at one point. I walked around the whole town before. I couldn't really go _inside_ any places…but I could still look around. We mostly went to the parks, because there was no one there and I could run around without my vampire cloak."

"So you've been to the park by my house before?"

She smiled. "Sure have! It was where I got my first…never mind…" She cut herself off and hid her face deeper in her disguise.

"Your first what?" Mike asked, instantly becoming interested.

"Nothing." She muttered as they neared the park, which was alive with people.

"No, I'm just very interested in what you were about to say." He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Your first what?"

"My first kiss, okay?" She hissed.

"_What_?"

"Shut up! That's her isn't it?"

Mike looked up. Clove was standing at the entrance to the park, leaning up against the gate and casting a small smile his way. She cast a strange look at the hidden Marionette by his side.

"Who's this?" She asked, combing her fingers through her hair as they approached.

"This my…uh…uhh…" He was still flabbergasted with what Marionette had just told him.

"Niece," She said from within the confines of her disguise, the only thing visible was the tips of her red cheeks. "I'm his niece. My mom's work got busy in Nevada, so she sent me here to spend some time with Uncle Mike."

"Really?" Clove asked. "She sent you all the way here?"

"Yeah…like she's got a busy job and well…being a single mom was a little rough on her. That and I've never like been outside Nevada before so she thought it'd be nice to like spend some time here, you know?" Marionette lied as if she'd rehearsed the conversation over and over again in her head.

"How long are you going to be staying here?" Clove asked, not noticing the way Mike was on edge, shifting from foot to foot wondering how long Marionette could keep the act going before Clove suspected something.

"Oh, I don't know." Marionette shrugged. "She was just like 'Hey, remember Uncle Mike'? And I was like 'uum, no?' and she goes 'Great! You're going to spend the summer with him!' and here I am like four months later _still_ _here_!"

"Gosh, what about school and everything? Or are you already graduated; I mean I don't know how old you are."

"Yeah I'm like 16; I'm going into my junior year." Marionette said casually. "I started getting homeschooled like after my freshmen year."

"Aw, that sucks." Clove shrugged. "You'll be missing prom and all of those high school dances."

"Hey I can still find a date, right?" She chuckled. "Like, all I gotta do is flirt my way around town until I find a cute guy who goes to the high school here."

"That's the spirit!" Clove laughed. "Well you sure look nice and cozy in all of that- I can't even see your face! Come on let's go to my truck, you can ride shot gun if it's cool with your Uncle." She swung the keys around her middle finger and headed off to a large black king cab Ford. Mike held back and turned to Marionette.

"You are a _really_ good actor." He said. "You do a really good teenager impression."

"I'm only a good actor when I'm nervous." Marionette explained, following Clove with shaking hands. "I work well under pressure."

"By the way, our earlier conversation isn't over." Mike headed towards the truck.

"What earlier conversation?"

"You know what I mean."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, yes you do! You know what? We can talk about right here, right now. Clove thinks I'm your Uncle; I can talk about your relationship status all day!" He gave her a rotten grin and climbed into the passenger seat of Clove's truck.

"Who's relationship status?" Clove asked, helping Marionette into the back seat and falling into the driver's seat, clicking her seat belt on and starting the engine.

"My _niece's_." Mike looked out each window, front and back, before folding his hands in his lap and fixing his gaze on the floor, still with a snarky grin.

"You want to do this now, _Uncle_ Mike? Fine. Fine. Go ahead. See if I care."

Clove winked at her through the rearview mirror. "Sassy. I like that. I'm Clove, by the way, what's your name?"

"Mary." Marionette said.

"Alright _Mary_," Mike cracked his knuckles. "Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?"

Before Marionette could make a sharp retort, Clove's phone, sitting in an empty holder, started buzzing loudly. She threw a glance at it while pulling away from the park and let out a little groan. "S-sorry," She stammered, reaching for it. "I've got to take this…" She held it up to her ear and pasted on a smile. "Hey…what, _now_? _No _I don't care!"

Mike and Marionette exchanged a glance through the review mirror and Marionette sunk into her seat.

"That's not _my_ problem, is it…?!" She flushed suddenly. "As a matter of fact yes…Yeah, whatever…Fine." She hung up and threw the phone back into the cup holder. "S-s-sorry," she stammered, turning red. "That w-was my friend…she's got problems."

"Ew." Marionette said.

"S-so Mary," Clove continued, obviously wanting to change the subject. "How do you like it here?"

"It's nice, actually," Marionette said, facing the window.

"Where's your favorite place to go?"

"The park we just left. It's really pretty and peaceful, especially at night."

"Really?" Clove wrinkled her nose. "I kinda thought it'd be pretty creepy at night."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Mike rolled his eyes, fiddling his thumbs.

"I forgot to ask you," She threw him a glance. "Why are you still in your uniform?"

Mike blinked. "Oh this…I had to stay…later than I expected." He lied.

"So Clove, you pretty much own this warehouse?" Marionette asked.

"I…guess…I mean no one really knows it exists except for me and pa…and now you guys I guess. Dad said he went to it after one of his coworkers told him about it. Wouldn't you know it? He used to work at the old Fazbear place." She chuckled. "I used to go there all the time when I was a kid…what about you, Mike?"

"Once or twice, yeah." He said absentmindedly.

"I liked seeing the animatronics play their song, but there was this one animatronic that really freaked me out. I think it was called the puppet or something like that…? Remember how _creepy_ it looked?"

Mike choked down a snickering laugh with all of his might. "I don't know, she was always pretty nice to me." He blinked.

"You sure like looking at the floor." Marionette said to Mike.

"I've got a headache."

"The same one from yesterday?" Clove frowned slightly. "You should probably take something for that."

"I'm fine." He said without looking up. "Really." He turned up the air conditioning. "Is it hot in here?"

"No, but it's freezing outside." Clove said.

"What street is this?" Marionette asked, looking out the window.  
"It's a shortcut from the park to the warehouse. Most people call it 'Funeral Street' because of the cemetery right here." She threw a glance to her left as the field of graves came into sight.

Mike looked up; he hadn't been down this street before, even though he'd lived so close to it. Sure enough, there was a graveyard shadowed by red-leaved autumn trees. But in the overcast day, more than just trees were shadowing over the field. A thick, dark aura was radiating from a grave and a big, inhuman shadow was staring at him. Its eyes were wide, white and pupil-less, its white mouth yawned an 'O', letting out a soundless cry. Mike yelped and looked away, back down to the floor.

"What is it?" Clove frowned at him, throwing a glance from him to the graveyard.

"Nothing! Nothing! Just watch the road!"

"Maybe you should go home." She said, her eyes on the path ahead. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Scared of the graveyard, _uncle_?" Marionette asked as the cemetery became lost in the trees. It was strange, she'd seen something too, but she knew living humans had pathetic ghost vision…

After a few turns and curves of the road in the woods, they came up on a three way intersection with a gas station on their left.

"So that's where this third road goes." Mike said, throwing a quick glance around his surroundings before concentrating on the floor again.

"Are you sure you're okay, Mike?" Clove asked, giving him an uncertain look. "You look like you're gonna be sick."

"I'll be fine. We're almost there anyways." He muttered.

Clove shrugged.

"I feel like I've been here before." Marionette murmured, hugging herself lightly. She felt uneasy, almost even sick. And the farther the truck went, the more and more familiar things began to feel, and Marionette felt even worse and worse.

"Well, here we are." Clove said, pulling up and parking in front of the warehouse. As soon as the car engine was off, Mike was out of the truck and heading towards the entrance. Marionette slid out of the truck cautiously and looked up at the warehouse. As she did, an eerie chill spun through her gears. Behind the glass of the front door, darkness yawned and Marionette felt as if it warnings were being whispered to her in the autumn breeze. _"…Run…away…Run…away…" _No matter how heavy the coat was on her back, she was shivering inside. _I can't go back. I can't go back. I can't go back in the dark. I can't go back in that box. I can't go back to sleep. _

"Mary!" Clove called from the front entrance where she and Mike were standing. "We're waiting on you!"

"T-that's okay, I'll be fine out here." She said with a little wave. "I'll stay and watch the truck."

"What and leave you out here in this creepy forest? No way!" Clove smiled. "Come on!"

"Okay." Marionette whispered in a small voice. Each footstep felt as if it was taking her closer and closer to a dark, cold, and lonely fate. No doubt, she'd been _here_ before. But, for the sake of the act, she followed her friend and the stranger inside.

"It's actually a little bit lighter than last time." Mike said, flicking on the light switch.

Clove shrugged. "I'm gonna go look for this really cool radio I saw the other day, you guys do whatever."

"Okay." Mike gave her a small wave as she headed off. "Alright, now to do something that's actually productive, eh?" He elbowed Marionette lightly, scanning the shelves of old junk for anything peculiar or relating to the 'magic' snow globe. "Clove said she found it around here…" He clicked his tongue and shifted a few old broken picture frames out of the way, sending three spiders fleeing from him. He wiped the dust on his pants and frowned at the picture frames. _Why can't you just throw this old stuff out? _He turned one of them over and saw that it had a shimmering ruby lodged in the wood and further inspection said that the others did as well. _Oh…that's why._

Marionette looked at the shelves of the aisle across from him. A stuffed bear with the name 'Emily' written on its bow was wearing a cloak of dust beside an empty glass bowl. She took off her hood and pulled down the scarf, casting a swift glance around her surroundings. "I've been here before…" she murmured in a shaky voice as she followed him down another aisle.

"Oh for Pete's sake, Marionette, you really think this is the exact same warehouse you were stuck in for 20 years?" He stopped and they both paused as they caught sight of a large cardboard box with the words 'See you soon' written on it in neat cursive writing. Mike blinked. "Well lookit that."

"That's Jeremy's handwriting." Marionette shuddered.

"And you remember that? Right." He rolled his eyes in disbelief. "It's cursive; it could be anybody's handwriting."

"Nope. It's Jeremy's."

"How do you _know_?"

"He writes his E's too close to other letters." Marionette kneeled down and pointed to the Es in 'see'. "And the O's are a little crooked; he hates writing O's in cursive."

Mike blinked in surprise. "And you remember that?"

"Yep." She stood up and stared at the box in spite.

"How?"

"He had a puzzle book that we'd work on together." She pulled her hood up over her again, still shaking, and tightened the scarf around her mouth. Then, she looked around and shuddered as if she'd heard or seen something awful. "I've got to get out of here. There's something weird about this place. Bad weird like…something's _off_ here."

"You really hate it here, don't you?" Mike asked her.

"Can't you _feel_ it?" She looked at him.

He stood still and looked around. As he did so, he realized she was right. There was something about the place that seemed…uneasy. A dark aura seemed to waft up from the floors. He blinked at her. "I don't like this place."

"Yeah, it's bad, isn't it?"

"I don't understand. It seemed totally fine whenever I went here last night." He rubbed the back of his head.

"Let's ask Clove about it. She's been here longer than anyone right?" Marionette looked in a cracked mirror to see if her disguise was hiding her well.

"Yeah okay…" Mike twiddled his thumbs again; still feeling chilled with what he'd seen in the graveyard. "Hey listen…" he started. "When we were driving past the cemetery…I thought I-"

"I saw it too." Marionette cut him off, turning to him. In disguise again, and in the dim light of the warehouse, her face was completely shadowed. "I thought humans didn't have ghost vision?"

"They don't." Mike rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know how I saw it…"

"Hm…" She frowned beneath her disguise. "Maybe you should talk to Freddy about it. He's the know-it-all around here. I mean, maybe not _in_ _town_, but you get what I'm saying."

"Yeah, okay." Mike nodded.

"Hey y'all." Clove said, walking down the aisle to them. "I found that radio, y'wanna get going?"

"Yeah, hey, Clove just stand still a minute." Mike said, raising a hand slightly.

"Okay…?" She frowned, looking at him like he was stupid, but stopped and stood still.

"Notice anything?"

"…No." She shook her head. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Thought I heard something, that's all."

Marionette turned back to the box, beside it was a small black pocket journal. "What's this?" She bent down and picked it up, looking it over.

"Well I'm going to the truck. Y'all come on when you're ready." She turned on her heel and headed towards the exit.

"Okay, we'll be right there." Mike told her. "Hey Marionette, you ready to scram?"

She opened the cover of the journal and dropped it suddenly as if it had burned her. "Yeah, let's go." She said, walking away quickly.

"What is it?" He asked, following her.

"Nothing." She said without looking back. "Paper cut."

He frowned and paused as she continued ahead with a brisk pace. "You can't get a _paper_ _cut_."

"So," Mike said, sitting on the couch in his house and passing Marionette half of a sandwich. She was thankful to have abandoned the heavy coat and scarf. "Back to our earlier conversation…"

"What did you see in the graveyard?" Marionette asked through a mouthful.

"I saw this big shadowy thing coming out of one of the graves." He said honestly and feeling stupid.

She nodded. "I saw the same thing."

"Was it a ghost?" He asked, waving his dog's nosy muzzle away from his sandwich.

"Yeah, they look different depending on their mood, I think." She tapped her chin. "The kids looked like that for the first few days after they were murdered. They'd just float around in that big, dark, thick mass…Then they kind of…chilled it out."

"That's weird." Mike said. "They got over it pretty quick."

"They were upset for quite a while." Marionette said, taking another bite of sandwich. "Not aggressive just…sad. That was when I knew them. Now they seem pretty happy. Freddy told me they calmed down a little bit after I was 'shut down'."

"I'm just saying it's strange that they don't seem angry at Vincent or anything."

Marionette shrugged. "You can ask them about it if you'd like, after 20 years I don't think they'll mind."

"Yeah…I'll probably just ask Foxy about it first." He shrugged and broke off a piece of bread to give to his dog.

"Stop feeding him tidbits, that's what makes him fatter." She said.

"It'd help if you took him out for walks around the neighborhood."

She gave him a frown. "And why can't you do it? He's your dog."

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't noticed I work the night shift, and I'm a human being and I need to sleep _some_ time." Mike squinted at her. "Plus you've been bumming it here for over a month now the _least_ you could do is take the dog for a walk. Besides, you're always complaining about how you never go outside ever."

Marionette finished off her half of sandwich and folded her arms. "I'm kind of excited for winter, but at the same time I kind of wish it was summer."

"Yeah, when people think of winter they think mainly about Christmas. That's why January and February go by so slowly; there's nothing to look forward to." He said, looking out the window. Despite the cloudless blue sky and bright sunshine, it was freezing.

"What about Valentine's Day?"

"Since when have _you_ ever looked forward to Valentine's Day?" Mike frowned. "You don't even know what Halloween is!"

"Yes I do! I'm informed!" She countered. "And anyway _I_ never said I looked forward to Valentine's Day, I just know it's a holiday that many _other_ people look forward to, I mean my friends never did, but everyone else did."

"Yeah, well I never looked forward to it either. It's kind of like that VIP group in school of all the popular kids, except in holiday form; 'Ha, ha, you can only celebrate this holiday if you've got a sweetheart.'"

Marionette snickered. "What, you weren't in that popular VIP group?"

"No, I was the greatest kid in the school. But no one else knew that except for me." He gave her a look.

"Ah, playing it nice, ay?" She added, picking up on his sarcasm.

"Yeah I _had_ to act like an idiot; otherwise I'd make all the other kids feel bad about themselves. It wouldn't be fair." He broke off into a chuckle.

"Wow, you're a giver." She grinned. "Oh, by the way, how's your headache?"

"Headache?" Mike frowned.

"Yeah, you said you had a headache when we were in the car." She quirked an eye at him. "I'm guessing it went away, then?"

He blinked in slight confusion as if he didn't know what she was talking about, then gave an eager nod. "Yeah, it went away."

"It's probably because you were sleeping on the floor and you jumped up and started running around real quick almost exactly when you woke up."

"Speaking of which…" Mike yawned widely and soon after, his dog did too. "I'm probably gonna go take a nap. Boss man said he wanted me to work Saturday night and Sunday night this week."

"…You mean Sunday morning and Monday morning?" Marionette asked.

"Whatever." He waved her off and walked into the other room.

_K-k-k_, said the snow globe on the coffee table.

"What was that?"

Marionette kept her mouth shut as the music started and sat still, waiting for him to realize what was happening. But unfortunately, all she heard from him was a muffled thud as he fell on the floor, fast asleep.

"Alright, Marionette." Mike yawned. "C'mon, it's time to go." He was standing in the doorway in uniform, his eyes still dreary with sleep.

"No," She groaned from the couch, rolling over and turning her back on him. "I'm too tired tonight."

"You mean this morning." He grouched, mocking her voice. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Fine, see you in a few hours." Giving her a lazy wave, he left the house.

Marionette waited until she heard his footsteps trot off the porch and the creak of the gate opening and closing again before sitting up, wide awake. Spike, who'd been snoring on her feet, gave her a sleepy-dog-eyed look and yawned with a little whine.

"No, fatty, I'm not going to take you for a walk at this hour." She smiled and rubbed his head between his ears. "But I guess I could feed you a snack, we've gotta wait for Mike to get out of the neighborhood before we can _really_ get to work." Slipping off the couch, she went into the kitchen and pulled out a few slices of cheese to share with the dog, who drooled over the couch cushions at the very smell of it.

Marionette looked out of the window at the dark, streetlight-lit neighborhood beyond. "He should be far enough by now." She whirled around and clapped her hands together with a wicked smirk. "Now let's get down to business."

"Rowwr?" Spike tipped his head.

"No worries, Spikey, I managed to slip it out of his wallet when he was asleep. He doesn't drive anyways, so I doubt he'll notice it's missing." She lifted a coaster on the coffee table and pulled out what she'd hidden underneath. Spike merely blinked at her. "Don't worry, I've got a pretty good idea on how everything works. I've seen Jeremy and Vincent do it loads of times. Besides, I read the manual. How hard can it be?"

She wandered over to the coat closet and stood on the tips of her feet, reaching up to the top shelf. "Hm…Ah, I thought it'd be up here." Pulling down the motorcycle helmet she'd seen earlier, she wiped the dust off of it with her hand. Spike gave it a curious sniff. "Bet Mike hasn't worn this thing once, eh?" She turned back to the closet. "Just for now…" She took one of Mike's dark winter coats off of a hanger and threw it around her shoulders.

Again, Spike tilted his head at her.

"Spike I know this looks suspicious, but this is only an experiment." Marionette explained, stuffing Mike's drivers license securely into the coat pocket and heaving the motorcycle helmet onto her head. "I know what I saw at that warehouse, and I need to get a hold of them. But there's no way I'm _walking_ to that place. Not past that cemetery. I want to be in and out of there as soon as possible."

"Ggrrmmmm." Spike moaned while stretching his slender forelegs.

"Yeah, yeah. I know I could just ask one of the others to go there with me, but there's no way I can let them see what I'm picking up. Especially Mr. Tall, ginger, and nosy." She spread her feet shoulder length apart and closed one eye, puffing out her chest and shaking her fist to mimic the absence of a hand. "'Arrr lass, that be some mighty suspicious gear ye got there, what's that junk mean to ye?'" She dropped the act with a scowl. "If he'd just kept his nosy muzzle to himself, there wouldn't be a problem. But nooo, he just had to stick his one-eyed self in."

The dog tipped his head at her and Marionette sighed, wandering into the kitchen.

"Oh no, I'm not angry with Foxy, no one could ever be," She shifted through the kitchen draws. "But he _hates_ it when people doubt him…which would result in him trying to prove the truth of his word…which results in problems for me." She picked up tinkling keys and swung them around her middle finger, closing the draw.

Noticing her outdoorsy gear, Spike wagged his stubby tail and nuzzled her hand. She smiled and scratched his back.

"I know I'm being pretty vague on the details here, but what do you care? You're just a dumb old dog!" she kissed his nose and took his face in her hands, rubbing his doggy cheeks. "Yes you _are_!"

Heading for the garage door, she grinned at him. "See you later poochy-pie!"

Even with the light on, the garage was dimly lit and smelled like moth balls. But, it was quite big, easily fitting in a shiny, black mustang and a bright red motorcycle that looked like it'd never been touched. _Let's just hope it at least has fuel. _Marionette swung the keys around her middle finger again and clicked open the garage door, making a beeline for the motorcycle. She admired the dials and handles with a grin.

"Vince always wanted one of these." She laughed to herself. "Well, here goes nothing." She climbed into the seat and put the keys in the ignition. With a throaty, snarling roar the engine came to life. Marionette grinned. "That's more like it." She clicked on the radio and turned the station back to the 80's. Remembering all she knew about driving, and the owner's manual, she pulled out of the garage and sped off down the driveway.

"Bonnie what's in that book you keep reading?" Chica asked, taking a bite out of a slice of pizza.

Bonnie lowered the book in his paws allowing his eyes to sweep across the table until they landed on her. "Things."

"What kind of things?" She grinned.

"Things that I'm reading."

"Things that you wanna maybe share?"

"Nope. Not yet, at least." He shifted and turned one of the yellowed pages, then stifled a laugh as best he could, his ears twitching with a chuckle.

"You keep doing that!" She squinted at him.

"Doing what?" He asked, grinning behind the large book. Mike leaned towards him to get a glimpse of the page he was on and Bonnie quickly shut it, placing a finger in it to hold his spot, and lightly bashed the guard on the head.

"Ow!"

"You keep turning pages and laughing and grinning like you're watching some really good movie!" Chica continued.

Bonnie laughed, throwing a cautious glance around the room to make sure no one was close enough to see the inside of the book before opening it again and continuing on his page. "It's better than a movie."

"Can you at least give us a hint?" Mike asked, bending a straw in several different ways.

"Okay." He rubbed his chin briefly. "You wouldn't be amused by it as much as I am. Foxy would like it." He grinned at the pirate in a mocking way.

"Somethin' naughty, ain't it?" Foxy squinted at him with his eye, polishing his hook with a napkin.

"No." Bonnie scowled at him. "Freddy would like it, maybe. Chica would like it. Marionette…I don't know. She probably shouldn't see it. She gets sad really easily."

"Really?" Mike frowned. "I've never seen her really sad except for when I found her by the park about a month ago."

"Yeah well, there's some things that she still needs to work out and get used to." Freddy said, straightening his bowtie.

"Like what?"

"Well for starters," Bonnie started. "Five of the other animatronics are gone for…pretty much forever. And she was in a coma for 20 years so planet Earth is significantly different…and everyone thought she was dead and Vincent died and Jeremy killed himself-"

"Whoa what?" Freddy paused.

"Huh?" Chica nearly choked on a mouthful of pizza.

"No he didn't…?" Foxy sat up quickly.

"Jeremy _died_?" Mike blinked.

Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie turned to him and sheepishly rubbed the back of their necks, casting guilty glances amongst each other.

"Yeah, we kind of forgot to tell you and Marionette…" Chica shrugged. "But yeah, Jeremy died in a car crash a few weeks ago."

"Exactly," Foxy frowned, turning to Bonnie."Ye can't kill yerself in a car crash."

"Sure you can." Freddy said, raising an eyebrow.

"Snip, snip." Bonnie said, reading on in his book.

"How do you know this?"

Sighing, he closed his book carefully and set it down on his knee, keeping a protective hand over it. "I found one of his journals in the warehouse. It starts at '87 and ends this year."

"Does it say why he…y'know…?" Chica asked.

Bonnie blinked as if he was debating over something, then shook his head. "No, just that he was sorry to hear that Marionette and Mangle were shut down. The journal was mostly blank anyway."

"Hang on, is it a little black pocket journal?" Mike asked, pausing in behind his straw.

"Yeah why?"

"Marionette found it earlier; when we went to the warehouse with Clove again."

"Did she keep it?" Bonnie frowned slightly, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"Nah, she only looked at the inside cover I think…but she seemed pretty disturbed by it."

"Yeah, listen, if I were you I'd stay away from that warehouse." Bonnie told him.

"Is that fear I hear, Bonnie?" Chica winked at him with a grin.

"No, I'm serious." He looked at Mike. "I get a bad feeling about that place." _And besides, _Bonnie thought to himself. _Something tells me that the ghost inside doesn't want any company. _

"Yeah, so did we…" Mike snapped his fingers and sat up. "Hey Freddy, I almost forgot, is it normal for me to see ghost people?"

Foxy choked on his soda with a laugh. "Well you see the kids, don't ye?"

"That's only because they _appear_ to him." Freddy corrected in a stuck-up tone, then looked up at the guard. "What do you mean by 'normal to see ghost people'?"

He shrugged. "We passed by a cemetery on the way to the warehouse and I saw this big shadowy thing there. Marionette said it was a ghost."

Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie exchanged impressed glances with each other, pausing in whatever they were doing.

"Interesting." Freddy rubbed his chin and squinted. "Sounds like you've got regular ghost vision just like us animatronics and domestic animals. Which is…completely opposite from a normal human- humans don't have the slightest hint of ghost vision. Even people who say they do- they just only get little slivers."

"Why do you think living humans don't have ghost vision?" Chica asked. "Just about every other living thing does."

"Maybe because some things are better left unknown, and maybe because t_he dead aren't supposed to interact with the living_." Bonnie suggested, twitching an ear.

"That reminds me, I need to ask the ghost kids a question." Mike said. "Are they here?"

Freddy gave a shrug and sat up. "HEY KIDS! MIKE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!"

There was a moment of silence in which everyone turned their head in various directions for any sign of the little ghosts.

"Hey look it's the scardey-cat night guard!" Echoed a voice, followed by the appearance of five pale, little figures that wandered up around Mike.

"That's mean, Jess." Freddy told her in a tone that really couldn't care less. "We don't say things like that to people."

"But Freddy," Bonnie gasped in a mocking tone. "Lying is _bad_."

Sheepishly, Jess shuffled her feet, which hovered above the ground, hidden beneath the table that wrapped around her middle like stiff water. "Sorry, night guard."

"Hey night guard can I wear your hat?" Chirs asked, pointing to it.

"You can't wear that hat if you're not a _night_ _guard_." Laura said.

"Sorry for making you scared that one time." Paul twiddled his thumbs guiltily.

"Hey wait, hang on." Mike started. "I've got a question for you guys."

Five transparent pairs of eyes locked onto him.

"How come you guys aren't…y'know…sad or angry or out for revenge? I mean you guys were…murdered, doesn't that make you angry?" He couldn't help but notice the way the four animatronics stiffened uneasily.

"It made me angry a long time ago." John said. "But I don't want to be angry anymore."

"Yeah, it's too hard." Laura added. "When you're angry all the time you can't let people make you happy."

"And you can't laugh if you're sad." Chris scratched at his hair. "I like laughing too much to be sad."

"Plus also it happened a really long time ago…" Paul said. "So it's kind of weird to still be sad about it now. We can't do anything to make it different." He shrugged.

Mike blinked. "Never thought about it like that before. I guess I just thought it was confusing when…what….what are you doing…?" He blinked as Jess stretched out her hand towards him slowly, her dark eyes big and round with interest. Mike paused and followed her gaze to his shoulder where a large, long-legged spider was creeping silently up his shoulder. "AH!" He jumped.

Jess swiped at him, blasting him with an eerie gust of sudden cold air, and in a second held the spider in her little hands.

"Eeewwww!" Laura shrieked. "Squish it!"

"He's just a spider!" Jess glowered at her, cradling the (probably terrified) bug in her hands. "I'm gonna name him Sticky."

"Are you scared of spiders?" Chris asked Mike.

"Yeah, were you gonna cry?" John added.

"No, I don't _cry_." Mike frowned, looking around for any more spiders or bugs of any kind.

Bonnie snorted. "You cried your first night on the job here."

He frowned and tightened his jaw, leaning his back against Foxy. "I was having a bad day and we're not gonna talk about it."

Jess stroked her spider's back. "He's an indoor spider, because birds eat spiders and birds are outside."

"What do you do, now that you've been ghosts for so long?" Mike asked.

"Sometimes we play Frisbee or catch." Paul said, holding a pale, transparent baseball.

"How did you…?"

"We can manfets things." Laura said, waving her hand in the air and making a transparent can of bubbles appear in her hand.

"That would be _manifest_." Freddy corrected her as a group of pale bubbles drifted through him.

"Weird." Mike blinked as he watched them.

"You wanna come play with us?" Chris asked him, grinning.

"Uh, no that's okay." He shifted. "I'm good here."

"Awww, why not?"

"Are you scared?"

"Do you know how to play?"

Mike shook his head. "No, no, no I'm just tired that's all." He yawned.

"Come on," John grabbed hold of his arm and tugged on it, causing Mike to shudder at the ghost's chilling touch. "Just one game? I promise it- whoa!" His grip on the guard's arm faltered and he stumbled and fell straight into him. As the ghost disappeared into the human, a dark, shapeless shadow morphed onto the wall and the room grew cold and uneasy.

The night guard blinked and looked at himself. "Hey cool, I'm a security guard!"

"W-WHOOAAA-WHAAAAA!" Foxy jumped up looking from the shadow on the wall to the ghost-possessed human, tugging on his ears in panic. "Y-Y-YOU, H-H-HE!"

"Hey!" Freddy frowned and Chica and Bonnie stared at the situation with wide eyes. "Hey, hey, hey! John!"

"What?" Asked the man, twiddling his thumbs. His skin was sickly pale and dark shadows hung around his eyes.

"Get out of there!"

He exchanged a look with the other four ghosts. "No."

"Wha-n-no?" Freddy looked taken aback. "What do you mean 'no'? Get out of there, that's not yours!"

"I'm just borrowing it." He pushed himself up and stumbled a few steps. "It feels weird to walk again." He looked at the other ghosts. "And heavy."

Chica and Bonnie stood up together, shooting a worried look at each other. "Hey, no, stop, you can't be in there!" Bonnie said, trying to sit him down again.

"Why not?"

"Can I get a turn after you?" Paul asked.

"No way, you already had a turn!" Chris shoved him.

"No I didn't!"

"Did too!"

"Hey, I wanna be alive again!" Jess stomped her foot on air, throwing her spider on the table.

"Well, you can't, I already called dibs on the next turn." Laura glued her hands to her hips and stuck her nose up at the other ghost girl. "So ha!"

Jess clenched her fists and pouted. "Fine. I'll get the third turn."

"What? Hey, no! No one said anything about taking turns!" Chica waved her arms.

"I did."

"Me too."

"Hurry _up_, John I want my turn already!"

"But I've only had my turn for five seconds!" John protested, leaning on the table with a frown.

"Enough fooling around!" Freddy growled. "John, get out of there, _no_ _one_ gets a second turn, that's not your body to live in! And I thought Vincent said no more rough housing around Mike?"

"But Vincent's not here." At once the four ghosts and John paused at the statement Chris made. It was like a door had been opened. Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie blinked.

Jess looked at John. "What do wanna do first."

"Go to the park."

"Okay."

Following the ghost-possessed human, the four spirits sprinted away from the room and down the dark hallway. After a minute, the tell-tale swoosh of the door said that they were gone.

**Hey look at that I got an idea towards the end of the chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Holy cow this chapter was originally crazy long so I shortened it. I'll admit I kind of wanted to end this chapter much, much later, but because of previous changes I made, I'll have to either end it here or have a super long chapter that will take forever to read. **

Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie stood staring after the disappeared ghost-children with gaping mouths.

"So where'd they go?" Foxy asked, his back to his friends and his face to the wall. The shadow was gone, and the room seemed somewhat warmer.

"The park." Bonnie said. Three gazes turned to stare at Foxy with somewhat sympathetic expressions. "You uh…you okay over there, big guy?"

"Yeah." He shrugged and straightened his eye patch.

"Uh guys where's Mike?" Freddy asked, looking around the room for the shadow.

"He just ran to the park." Chica said.

"I mean the _real_ Mike!" The three looked around the room for any sign of the inhuman, dark, shadow but couldn't find a thing.

"I think he left." Foxy said, still staring at the wall.

"Left? What do you mean _left_?"

Finally he turned to them with a shrug, his posture blank. "I dunno. Don't ghosts do that temper tantrum thing? Maybe he went off somewhere or…I don't know." He walked in a somewhat limping fashion over to the table and sat down again, picking up a deck of cards in his one hand.

The three others exchanged a look.

"You uh…" Freddy gave a fake half-chuckle. "You seem pretty okay about all this."

Foxy didn't look up, he just shrugged and looked at his cards. "Are we playin' or not?"

"Okay." They sat down slowly and picked up a few cards to start a game.

"What do you want to play?" Chica asked.

"Yaht- I mean uh…the one where you…." Foxy shook his head as if to clear something. "Never mind, you pick."

"Hey guys what's goin' on?" Asked a voice from the hidden hallway. "I can't find the kids and I thought I heard…" He trailed off as the four in the room turned to stare at him. "Oh yeah I'm back from the whatever thing."

"Hey Vincent." Bonnie waved slightly.

The old, possessed suit frowned. "What's the matter with you guys? You all look like you-" He cut himself off as he looked at Foxy and blinked several times. "Okay _that's_ mad spiff." He walked over to them, frowning slightly at Foxy. "How…how are you doing that?"

"I dunno. I just kinda…" Foxy shrugged, looking down at himself. "I dunno."

"And…it works?"

"Apparently…I mean decision making is kinda…" He squinted as if forming sentences was a challenge. "Hard but it's….possible, yeah I think." He reached up to lightly touch his eye patch and then frowned at his hook as if he'd never seen it before.

Vincent gave a laugh (the first one they'd heard in a very long time) and continued talking. "Yeah it looks like a challenge…I didn't know that you could do something like that."

"Neither did…I."

"What?" Bonnie frowned.

"What's so weird?" Chica asked.

"I forgot," Vincent snapped his fingers. "You probably can't tell. I'm a ghost, so I have ghost vision to the max, but to you he probably looks normal."

"What are you talking about?" Freddy stopped shuffling his cards.

"Nothin'." Foxy said, staring at the table.

Vincent shrugged and leaned against Bonnie's chair. "So how's the posse been since I left?"

"Kinda boring…?" Chica said. "We haven't really done anything. I mean I tried to write a song again but I failed."

"I went to the warehouse and found Jeremy's old journal." Bonnie raised his hand.

"Yeah I'd stay away from that warehouse if I were you." Vincent said. "The ghost there is a hoser to the max." He looked around. "By the way, where's Marionette."

"She's at…the place where…home." Foxy said, and muttered something else that was inaudible.

"What're the kids doing?"

"They're hanging out with Mike at the park." Bonnie said with a chuckle.

Vincent gave a nod. "I've got a few words for them, when they get back."

Freddy and Chica exchanged a look. "What kind of words?"

"Oh, y'know, just about stealing." He arched his back in a stretch. "Stealing is rude thing, did you know that? When someone steals your candy bar, you're sad because they've taken something that makes you happy to make _them_ happy- without your permission. They just…took it. Because they wanted it and they felt entitled to it. Do you have any idea how…?" He cut himself off and clenched his jaw.

"What if they don't come back?" Foxy blurted in a panicked voice, then frowned and said in a more reassuring voice. "They'll come back."

"And what about Mike?" Chica asked, exchanging a look with the others. "What if he never comes back?"

Freddy and Bonnie threw looks from her to Foxy, but the animatronic didn't seem focused on what she'd said. Vincent gave Foxy a look. "It'll be chill." He said. "And don't panic, it's what drives a lot of ghosts crazy.

"Crazy?! I don't wanna be crazy! What if I go crazy? Will I be crazy when they come back?! What if they don't come back?!" Foxy blurted out, dropping his deck of cards. Vincent smacked him over the head with a tattered hand. Foxy frowned and picked up his cards again in a more relaxed manner. "They'll come back, why wouldn't they? It's one human, they can't all share it." He blinked. "But how long will they be gone? Days? Weeks? Months?"

Vincent frowned at him. "Quit buggin', they'll be back soon. All of their living friends are over twenty years old by now." He blinked and frowned at realization. "But their parents…"

Chica blinked. "Y-you don't think they'd….?"

"Hang ten." Vincent said and in a quick minute, a transparent shape shot down the dark hallway and the springtrap suit slumped limply against Bonnie. He squinted in discomfort and gave it a disturbed look.

"Y'know, I haven't seen Vincent in a really long time." Chica tapped her chin. "I mean, y'know, the old Vincent. I wonder how his ghost-self looks?"

Freddy shrugged. "I don't know if he wants to come out of the suit yet." He looked at Foxy. "You okay?"

"Yeah, why do…you all….keep asking…me that?" He frowned without looking up, taking each card and finding a match for it.

"What're you doing that for?" Bonnie asked him.

"I'm trying to see…I think…coordination….movement."

"What's wrong with you?" Freddy asked. "You're talking like an idiot."

"I'm not stupid!"

"I never said you were stupid!"

"Yeah, but you were…thinking about it." He gave Bonnie a frown.

"Hey, calm down, we're all friends here." Bonnie tossed his book under his chair.

"I'm not panicking…" Foxy blinked. "No one said ye _were_ panickin', lad."

"You've got…there's something…No." Chica gestured to him. "You've got something wrong. I don't like it." She tightened her jaw. "Freddy do you like it? Tell me you don't like it."

"No I don't…" Freddy narrowed his eyes at Foxy. "Listen, I'm sure Mike will come back eventually. I mean…he doesn't have any other friends, where else is he gonna go?"

"I ain't worried about nothin'." He said without looking at him. Then added more forcefully "About _nothin'_."

"If you say so," Bonnie shrugged. "Cause you seem a little…extremely bipolar."

Foxy blinked. "I'm not bipolar! Why would you say that? I just…" He reached up and scratched at his eye patch with his hood, accidentally tugging at it and pulling it off. The eye beneath, unlike its stormy blue partner, was a deep brown.

"Whoa, what?" Freddy squinted.

"Ewww that's not natural!" Chica clenched her fists.

"Now ye've done it." Foxy rolled his blue eye, straightening his eye patch to cover the odder one. At once his tone and attitude changed. "I didn't do _anything_! I've never had a _hook for a hand _before! I've always been right handed!" His shoulders then slumped and he sighed. "Would ye just calm down already?" He tensed and sat up. "I'm trying! But I just keep worrying!" He frowned and sighed again. "Well quit yer worryin'! Vincent said he'd take care of it didn't he?" He tensed again and bounced his knee. "But what if he was wrong?" Rolling his eye, he threw back his head and groaned. "Will ye stop with the 'what ifs'?!"

Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy watched the conflict with dumbfounded looks on their faces. They exchanged a glance with one another, deciding it best not to interfere and to just let Foxy work things out with…himself.

"This reminds me of Bohemian Rhapsody." Bonnie said, and when the other two frowned at him he nodded. "You know…with the little 'Galileo' and the…never mind."

"Where do you think Mike is?" Chica asked, shaking her head slightly.

"Not on a bus, that's for sure." Bonnie said, stroking the cover of his book.

Freddy frowned and shrugged. "I don't know. I think everyone's just absolutely lost their mind at this point. I mean the kids just ran off, Mike's who knows where probably throwing some kind of ghost tantrum and Foxy…I don't even know anymore I think he's just paranoid or worried but he's in trouble."

"Hey…Foxy?" Bonnie asked.

Foxy looked up as if just noticing Bonnie for the first time. "…Heard all that did ye?"

Chica nodded.

"S-sorry," He leaned back and put an arm behind his head, still bouncing a knee. "I was just talkin' to mahself."

"Yeah, we know." Freddy quirked an eyebrow at him. "Are you okay in there?"

Foxy crossed his other leg over his bouncing knee. "Think so. For now." He leaned his head back and closed an eye. "What time is it?"

"It's 5:15 in the morning," Bonnie said, throwing a look at the clock. "Don't worry, Vincent should be back-" the dull yellow spring trap suit stood up, its pale eyes aglow again."Shortly."

"Well I'm back," Vincent said. "The kids should be here any minute." He looked at them. "What about you guys, you've all been good here?"

"_We_ have," Freddy said, gesturing to Bonnie, Chica, and himself. "_Foxy_ on the other hand…"

Vincent put an old, cracked hand to his mouth to hide a smirk. "Oh, I can only imagine." He looked at Foxy. "I wonder how long you can stay like that…?"

Foxy tilted his head down and opened his eye with a shrug and a lazy grin. "I dunno. It ain't so bad, once ye get the hang of it…and once yer other half _quits_ _panickin'_." He gave a chuckle.

The front door swished open and after a minute the possessed human walked into the room with a guilty look in his dead-looking eyes and four guilty ghosts behind him. When Foxy saw them, he grinned broadly sighed in relief. "Oh _finally_!" He doubled over and let out a sputtering cough as if trying to choke something up. A shadow morphed around his feet on the ground and slipped across the tile to the human's feet. As John's ghost drifted out of the body, it began to look more alive again. The color returned to his face and he smiled, taking in a deep breath of air.

"Thank _god_!"

Vincent gave the ghosts a look. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

John looked at Mike sheepishly. "S-sorry, Mr. Night guard for stealing you. We won't do it again, we promise."

Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie shook their heads, exchanging even more confused looks with each other.

"MIKE?"

"WHERE DID _YOU_ COME FROM?!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!" Freddy tugged at his ears.

Foxy chuckled and clapped Mike on the shoulder. "Glad to be back where ye belong, eh lad?"

He nodded in return. "Yeah, that was…really…weird."

Chica shook her head. "Whoa, whoa wait. You were _sharing_ _Foxy_? Is that even possible?"

The two exchanged a look and shrugged. "Apparently," Mike said. "It's like trading bodies I guess, but instead of trading, you're sharing."

Freddy took off his hat and scratched his head. "How did you do that?"

Foxy shrugged. "Just leaned against the wall when he was a shadow."

"That's dynamite," Vincent said, eyeing the two with great interest. "Really. Do you think tomorrow night you could do it again?"

"What? No, why?" Mike shivered at the thought.

"Just so I can take a few notes. I've been studying up on ghost behavior. I wrote an entire manuscript on it."

"That's right," Bonnie twitched an ear at him. "You still need to tell us about your study trip or vacation or whatever it was you did."

"Yeah, I will." He sighed. "But not right now." He stretched his arms forward and then arched his back, stretching it. "I think I'll just-" He stopped at a cracking noise from his lower back. "Wait…" He stretched his arm down into one of the chips in his back as if digging into a back pocket on a coat. "Wait…" He leaned far back, then pulled out a little dirty, yellowish white thing. "Hey look it's a part of my spine."

"Can I see?" Chris and the other ghost kids gathered around him.

"It's like a puzzle, if you find all two-hundred and six bones your prize is a dead body!" He said, looking the little bone over in his hand.

"Can I look for more?" John asked him.

"No, that was a joke, you kids stay away from me I'm disgusting." He shook out each of his feet slowly as if trying to get water out of his shoes. "Any more in there?"

Chica wrinkled her beak. "That's gross. Go throw that in your grave."

Vincent tipped his head back and opened his jaw, tossing the little bone back down his throat. "Nah, it's no bother now."

She gagged.

Mike looked at the clock as it chimed the new hour. "Guys I'm gonna go home." He said with a yawn. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, and Mike do me a favor and bring a notepad and pen?" Vincent asked him as he headed for the door.

"Sure thing." And waving goodbye to his friends, he left.

Marionette grinned, swerving around another curve in the neighborhood again. She loved riding the motorcycle and could only wonder why Mike had never driven it himself. The chilling night wind coursing through the coat she wore along with the radio blaring her favorite song brought back old memories of what were now called 'the good old days' but felt like just yesterday.

So far, none of the neighbors had gotten up to yell at her, and no police car had been riding on her tail. She'd gotten the hang of the controls, but then again, not many people were up this hour…which allowed her to cruise around at whatever speed she wished.

"_Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night_," She sang, grinning along with the radio. "_I can see paradise by the dashboard light._" Of course, it was always better when you had a friend to sing along with you, but this was a bit of a solo adventure.

She rounded another turn and sped up down the long road that stretched before her, illuminated by the streetlights and her yellow headlight beams. So caught up in the fun she was having, she nearly slammed into the lone figure she saw in front of her and let out a squeak of alarm, brining the motorcycle to a shrieking halt. Instantly, she turned down the volume on the radio.

"Oh my gosh," She started, feeling instantly guilty and worried. "I am _so_ _sorry_; I didn't even see you there!"

"Oh god I…" the man in front of her blinked and paused, then he frowned and she swallowed hard as soon as she saw who he was. "…Marionette?"

"…Hey."

He stared at her for a minute as if not sure how to process the situation. Then he blinked, shook his head, and glowered at her. "What were you _thinking_?! Do you have ANY idea what could've happened?! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!" Instantly he began pacing madly back and forth, twiddling his thumbs. "You could've just run over me! You could've ran over someone ELSE! You could've gotten into a wreck and gotten yourself all torn up! You could've killed yourself! You could've run into someone ELSE'S car, you could've run into someone's yard or into someone's house, you could've run over a kid or a dog, you could've gotten yourself all mangled up and what would happen then? Someone would call the cops and at the scene who'd be the one at the wheel? MY MOTORCYCLE! Everyone already thinks you're dead, what will they think when they saw that you were driving MY MOTORCYCLE?! Oh god they'll think I'm some kind of weird obsessive thief they'll probably lock me up in the special hospital and I'll never see Foxy or the others again I'll lose my job and how in the world am I supposed to explain how you managed to drive the motorcycle in the first place?"

Watching him pace back and forth, letting out a stream of panic, Marionette took her helmet off. "Whoa, calm down, I'm fine." She said. "Look, no one's dead. And your motorcycle's fine. I didn't run over anyone and I didn't get a scratch on her."

"BUT YOU COULD'VE!" He yelled, his hands shaking violently. "Y-You could've gotten caught by the police you could've been thrown in jail; I COULD'VE BEEN THROWN IN JAIL! You could've…"

She blinked at him. "You're motorphobic." She said.

He paused, and for a split second a flash of surprise crossed his eyes. It disappeared just as soon as it came, but she caught it all the same. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He said, sounding as if he was trying to keep his voice from shaking.

"Yes you do." She nodded. "You're afraid of driving-or cars in general, aren't you?"

"That's stupid- you made that up." He folded his arms and avoided her gaze.

Marionette laughed. "Why didn't I see it before? You don't have it that bad, but you've got it. It's why you walk everywhere, it's why you never drive anywhere ever, it's why you got a job so close to your house, it's why you live so close to the park and the town, it's why you got those 'headaches' when we were riding in Clove's truck…It's even why you like hanging around the woods, isn't it?"

"That's ridiculous," He rolled his eyes, but his hands still quivered.

"Okay then," She shrugged. "Hop on, I'll drive us back to the house."

He swallowed hard. "N-no."

"Why not?" She asked him. "I mean it's quicker and everything."

"I don't have a helmet," He gave her a smooth, snarky smile.

She tossed him the motorcycle helmet. "Here, this is yours anyways, and besides, I'm a robot."

He clenched his fists in frustration, his smile fell. But instead of looking angry, he looked more like he wanted to cry, flushing in embarrassment.

Marionette smiled a bit. "I'm just kidding," She told him. "I'll go park this thing and then come back to walk with you." She flicked up her hood and waited for him to walk out of the way so she could turn, and drove off down the street to the house.

After parking the motorcycle and shutting it off, she headed down the street again and tipped the hood of her coat up over her head, seeing as the dawn was already casting light over the neighborhood.

When she caught up with Mike, he was around six houses from their home and had his head down and he looked humiliated. She gave him a little smile. "Don't worry about it; you're not the only one with a phobia of something. Jeremy had claustrophobia and scotomaphobia something awful."

"Scotomaphobia?" Mike echoed.

"He was afraid of being blind." Marionette explained. "If it scares you too bad, you probably want to see a therapist," She continued as he wrinkled his face in intense dislike. "But no one wants to see a therapist so…" She shrugged. "I guess it makes sense to be afraid of driving, I mean the statistics say about 1.3 million people die in car crashes each year…what is that, like 3,000 a day?"

"You're not helping!"

"Sorry…" She gave a little chuckle. "Well…most people have phobias because of things they were taught or life traumas, so it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"A lot of people in my family died in a car crash," He rubbed the back of his neck. "And I don't know…a lot of people I know were in some pretty bad ones…And even that Jeremy guy just died in one a few weeks ago."

"Wait, what?" Marionette paused and stared at him.

"Yeah," Mike said with a nod. "Freddy said he forgot to tell us, but Jeremy died in a car wreck and I think Bonnie said something about him cutting his brakes."

"Why would he _do_ _that_?"

"I don't know, I didn't know him!" He sighed. "Anyway, Vincent's back from his trip or whatever it was. He says he wants me to bring him a notebook because he's got an idea for a weird ghost science experiment." Mike unlocked the gate and gently shoved a happy dog away from it, yawning and going to unlock the door. "That guy's weird. He found another one of his bones in the suit." He tossed his security cap on the coffee table.

"Mm…" Marionette muttered, sitting on the couch.

"You can take that coat off, y'know. We're inside…Or at least take the hood off I mean Spike doesn't care that you're a robot." Mike told her.

"Mm…" She murmured, ignoring the fat Doberman's doggy kisses.

"Alright, you do whatever, I'm going to take a nap and rethink everything." He groaned and headed off into the other room, closing the door behind him.

Mike yawned and walked into the living room. "Hey I think I slept in for longer than I wanted to, I was wondering what you…" He trailed off as he saw that Marionette wasn't there. The radio was on an old 70s channel and his dog was lying on the couch on his back, his muzzle covered in something that looked sticky. "Marionette?"

Spike gave him a guilty look, like he'd done something wrong.

"What did you start eating?" Mike asked him, when the dog didn't respond he went into the kitchen and stopped.

Marionette was lying face down on the kitchen floor with a spoon in her hand and a half-eaten tub of vanilla ice cream in her arm. Two other empty tubs were beside her, leaking out sticky melted ice cream. Mike paused for a minute, staring at her. Spike stood beside him and licked his jaws at the sight of more ice cream.

"…What are you doing?" He asked her finally.

"Leave me alone to die." She moaned without lifting her head.

"Did you _eat_ all of the ice cream in my house?"

"I'm still working on this one." She sniffed and pushed the tub towards him without looking up. "You can have some if you want."

"No that's fine I'll…go buy some more later…or you can if you wanna take the mustang out for a run." He chuckled, but it was obvious his humor didn't reach her. Sighing, he got a spoon from the draw and sat down cross-legged in front of her, putting the half-melted tub of ice cream towards him and swallowing a spoonful of it. "What's the matter? You were fine this morning."

"I am fine. I'm just hungry." She said with a sniff, her voice somewhat muffled by the tile beneath her face.

"She says as she proceeds to eat all of the ice cream in my house." He muttered, shoveling in another spoonful. "I had a few friends in high school, I know the signs of girly depression."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Yes you do." He shoved his dog's muzzle out of the way. "You're doing that girly 'no means yes' thing."

She groaned in response.

"You're gonna have a wicked bad stomach ache in a few minutes."

"I don't get stomach aches. I'm a robot." She sniffed and gave a little whimper.

Mike laughed. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." She whined, followed by a little sob.

"So why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying I'm okay," She cried. "It's just that…I love ice cream so much…and I get a little emotional sometimes and I'm just…..crying tears of joy because…Ice cream….just makes me so happy." She sniffed.

Mike blinked at her and ate another spoonful of ice cream. His dog licked his face and he squinted. "Alright, you don't have to tell me." He sighed and pushed the carton of ice cream towards her again. "What flavors do I need to get?"

"Rocky road and fudge swirl." She sniffed, still not bothering to lift her head.

"Alright," He yawned. "How long are you gonna be like…this?" He gestured to her depressed state, although she couldn't see it.

"I don't know…on and off, probably."

"Do we need to keep the 70's-80's radio station on?"

"24/7."

"10-4."

"By the way, what does Vincent need you to bring him a pad and pen for?" Marionette asked Mike as they headed past the park on the way to the restaurant.

"I told you," Mike said, pulling his coat tighter around him. "I don't know why he wants me to do it, but I think he wants to see me and Foxy do the weird ghost thing again." He shuddered. "As much as I trust Foxy, I'm not looking forward to it at all."

"What's the weird ghost trick?"

He sighed, his breath of puff of chilled air. "It's hard to explain. It's like trading bodies like they do in the movies, but instead of _trading_, you're _sharing_."

"That sounds gross." She squinted an eye.

"Not gross just…weird. It's like two people controlling a giant robot with their thoughts and feelings."

"That sounds like a gay metaphor."

"Like I said; hard to explain." Mike rolled his eyes. He shot her a sideways glance. "Maybe we need to get you a coat of your own."

"I have my own cloak you know." She told him.

"The vampire cloak?" He gave a snicker. "I thought that was a joke!"

"She grinned. "Nope! It had this awesome hood and everything."

"I take it you're feeling better? You were a mess this morning." Mike quirked an eyebrow at her.

"For now, yeah. It'll take me a while. I'll be on and off, but I'm gonna try not to make it an 'all the time' thing." She said with a little sigh.

"You wanna tell me why you're semi-down in the dumps?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Eh, it's not that important."

"Not that _important_?" He frowned at her. "You spent all morning crying your little robot eyes out- which you still need to explain to me how you can do that- and ate ICE CREAM while listening to slow songs from the 70s and 80s! And after all that it's _not_ _that_ _important_?!" She tried to hide a snicker under her jacket hood and he rolled his eyes with a grin. "You're full of crap, you know that?"

"Hey guys, we're here." Mike called as he and Marionette walked down the hall to the main room. Everyone was gathered around the large book in Bonnie's arms, talking animatedly amongst one another as they stared down at the pages. The ghost kids were playing ball on a table and Vincent wasn't anywhere in sight. Mike and Marionette exchanged a glance. "Whatcha got there?"

Slowly, the four looked up and grinned at him. "What…this?" Bonnie asked with a little chuckle. "Nothin'." He turned the page and the four burst out into loud laughter.

"Sound an awful lot like something to me." Marionette said as she and Mike headed over to them. She pulled Bonnie's arm down slightly so she could get a good look at what its pages said. She blinked. "It's a…photo album?" The pages were dotted with pictures of her friends new and old in the old Fazbear place. "Who took all those pictures? They must've known us pretty well." She laughed at a picture of Fred and Bon accidently tripping each other on stage.

"I don't know," Freddy grinned. "Bonnie found it in the old warehouse…oh, I remember that, remember when they fell down and this mom went 'God I hate it when my kids fall down'."

Mike cringed. "Oh god is that me?" He pointed to a picture of a little boy riding on Foxy's shoulders and Bonnie let out a laugh.

"Yep, that was you." Freddy said with a chuckle. "There's a few of you in here, actually," he tapped the spine of the book with a grin. "_Lil'_ _Mike_."

He tightened his jaw, flushing scarlet. "Stop that."

Bonnie turned the page and scanned through the pictures in the album. "There's hardly any of me in here, but eh. I can't be famous in everything." He flipped his ears in a joking way.

Vincent walked by them and looked over Freddy's shoulder at the album, pausing as he did so to look at the pictures. "…Who's that tall, creepy-lookin' gu - Oh _NO_!"

The five animatronics laughed.

"Hey is that my old photo album?" He scratched his head. "I remember I made it for you guys, but then I thought of giving it to boss man…and then I went schizo-psycho-crazy and forgot all about it."

Bonnie laughed. "I'm so glad I found this." He pointed to a picture of a terrified young man sitting at a desk with his 'SECURITY' cap tipped down to hide his face. "There's Jeremy, by the way, Mike."

"I can't see his face."

"That's okay, just imagine two eyes the size of baseballs on a human face, and you're done." He ended in a snicker that sent Freddy and Foxy laughing.

"Oh, _come_ on." Chica said through a chuckle. "That is _so_ mean."

"It's true though," Vincent said. "He just always had this look about him that, when he wasn't smiling (which was always), he just looked really sad and upset!" He ran a tattered hand in between his one-and-a-half ears, then snapped his fingers and looked at Mike. "You ready for some experiments?"

Mike shrugged, feeling a weight fall into his stomach. "I've got the notepad and pen."

"GROOVY! C'mon Foxy, let's go." The possessed animatronic turned on his heel and headed into the direction of the parts and service room.

"Hey can I come too?" Marionette asked, following them.

"Sure thing, Cheesecake." Vincent called over his shoulder.

"Cheesecake?" Mike wrinkled his nose as Vincent closed the door a bit so as not to disturb the others (and the kids).

"I made up weird nicknames for some people when I met them. I just associated their face with the dominant thought and started calling them that." Vincent explained. "I actually thought of calling you 'Sport' because you kept reminding me of your kid self. Anyways," He shook his head slightly to keep him on track. "You have the pad and pen?"

Mike pulled the items out of his coat and went to hand them to the ghost, but Vincent shook his head and raised his hand. "No, no, hang on to them for a minute." His mouth twitched slightly. "Now," he looked from Mike to Foxy. "About that trick of yours…"

Mike shivered. "I don't know…I really, really don't like being shoved from my body."

Vincent gave a nod and a smile (something he rarely did anymore). "I understand, I don't intend to keep your soul from your shell for long. But this is for _science_! Think about all of the possibilities that could evolve from this!" He threw a glance at the kids in the other room.

"Since when did you start caring about the evolution of possibilities from science?" Marionette asked, folding her arms.

"Watch that mouth of yours, Cheesecake." Vincent murmured, still with his eyes and crack-toothed smile on Mike and Foxy. "It's gonna get you in a truckload of trouble. A _truckload_."

She squinted and her red cheeks glowed a bright ruby. "Point taken."

"Okay," Vincent smiled widely now, his pale eyes alight with excitement. "Now, I'm not going to do a lot of tests because I'm not sure how well you'll handle without being in your own body for long periods of time…" He beamed. "You ready, Mike?"

Mike gulped, his hands shaking slightly. "Does it hurt?"

"You tell me." The suit went limp and suddenly Mike began to shudder and cough. Foxy put a hand on him to keep him from falling over. A tremor rippled through him and then the two froze.


	15. Chapter 15

**So, my ideas for this story are kind of low, so lately I've been just taking the most random crud I can think of and throwing it in. I mean I have a plan sort of, but I need to add a bunch of little things in somewhere and I don't know. We'll see eh?**

Marionette blinked. "…Did it work?"

The possessed human, now with sickly pale skin and shadows under his eyes, looked down at himself, then looked around at his backside. "Dang! I'm rockin' these khakis better than I ever could in my old self!"

"Uhh…" Foxy frowned slightly as if unsure how to respond to that statement, then grinned and burst out into a hearty laugh.

Vincent-Mike gave a little jump of enthusiasm and jumped from foot to foot, his hands clenched up to his chin. "Oh this is so GREAT!" He pulled the pen and pad out of his (well…technically _Mike's_) coat and scribbled away. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his posture. "Now tell me…How does that make you _feel_?"

"Oh no this is one of those twenty-million questions?" Foxy asked, shifting uneasily. "Man I _hate_ question games!" He then shrugged with a smile. "I feel fine. Sometimes one foot does one thing and the other does somethin' else. Also," He gave a chuckle. "Sometimes I forget I got a hook."

"Do me a solid." Vincent-Mike chewed on his pen. "Walk to Marionette."

Foxy shrugged and headed to her, he had a sort of limp to his walk and tended to half-mutter things. "Wha…?"

"Just as I thought." He excitedly scribbled something on his notepad. "Mike's used to being shorter, so their walk is funked up."

"Can they fix it?" Marionette asked, tipping her head as Foxy shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Oh sure, they just have to get used to sharing a body." Vincent-Mike walked around Foxy and looked him up and down, chewing on his pen and squinting. "Take off your eye patch."

"Okay." He hesitated, but then tipped his patch up to reveal the strange brown eye.

"I thought there'd be SOME physical change." Vincent-Mike said. "I assume, because you're a robot, it's not as great. By the way, what's the transfer like? Human to robot?"

"Weird. I don't have a pulse. It's kind of like a rhythm; the gears keep turning." He tapped his chest around the torn material. "I feel creaky."

"Mmhmm…" He scribbled on his notepad. "What about mentally? How are you on decision-making?"

"Whooaaaa are they doing that _thing_ again?" Bonnie stuck his head into the room. "What's happenin', _Moxy_?"

"This is science, not shipping." Marionette said with a chuckle.

"You know what _else_ is 'science', Cheesecake?" Vincent-Mike asked her. "You want to explain what's 'science'? Go ahead! Be my guest! Please give us all a detailed summary of _biology_! A _demonstration_ if you will!"

She tightened her mouth.

"That's what I thought." He turned back to Foxy (or…Moxy). "Although I'm starting to dig 'Moxie'…as in 'ie'. We have to come up with SOME kind of cross-name. Anyways, decision-making, how about it?"

"I dunno." Moxie shrugged. "Ain't really had to decide on anything yet."

"Okay. Coke or Pepsi?"

"Coke."

"M &amp; Ms or Skittles?"

"Taste the rainbow." Marionette grinned.

"Sk-no I hate those...no I don't…I kinda…" Moxie blinked one eye at a time.

"Ew."

"Fascinating."

Marionette turned to Vincent-Mike. "Why are you so intrigued by this in the first place?"

"On my trip, I studied a lot in psychology and psychiatry, and took a LOT of notes about ghost-life." He said, writing down things in his notepad. "It's very interesting…I found out a lot of things about ghosts. Did you know that some ghosts don't go to the afterlife because they're trapped on Earth?"

"…No?"

He rolled his eyes. "After you die, a loved one or relative of yours comes to Earth from the afterlife to take you back with them. If you're stuck on Earth, it's because someone hasn't come to pick you up yet. It might be because all of your loved ones and relatives are alive or it might be because your deceased relatives feel you aren't ready yet." He snapped his fingers. "BUT in my studies I found that you can be TRAPPED on the Earth by traumas."

"Traumas? Isn't that a psychology thing?" Marionette squinted. "I thought ghosts didn't have mental or physical issues."

"They don't." Vincent-Mike shook his head slightly. "But ghosts have some abilities that living humans don't; memory. A ghost's memory is so incredibly perfect there isn't a _thing_ that can be forgotten. I remember every word that was spoken in my job interview to work at the Fazbear place. I remember every answer I made on my final exam in the 10th grade. I remember what I said to you on June 4th, 1987."

"And what, exactly, was that?" She asked him, folding her arms.

"I said 'You better take it back to first gear, Cheesecake, or you're gonna get yourself in a truckload of trouble'." He narrowed his eyes at her and her red cheeks glowed. "The point is, as well as having strong memories, ghosts have strong emotions- the two strongest are love and fear. And sometimes, fear gets the better of them, and they're trapped in their own traumatic nightmarish memories, twisted by their greatest fears and worries." He sighed. "It's…bad. It's _like_ a mental disorder but it's not…It's complicated. The bottom line is this: unlike a mental disorder, _this_ can be fixed!"

"You want to help ghosts who are trapped in their own fears?" Marionette asked.

"You could say that," Vincent-Mike tapped his chin with his pen and threw a glance back at Moxie. "Right now my primary goal or…dream or whatever you want to call it, kind of revolves around the success of this experiment. If I can prove that two souls can live inside one vessel together in harmony…" He threw a glance out into the other room. "Maybe I can give the kids another chance."

"_What_?"

"I know it's a long shot, and I think forcing another soul to share its life with another is absolutely unforgivable but…"He rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe if it was done in the early stages of life…I don't know, like I said it all depends on the outcome of this experiment." He looked back at Moxie. "So, M &amp; Ms or Skittles?"

"Skittles." Moxie said.

"Great." Vincent-Mike scribbled something on his notepad. "Okay, now," He flipped to another page in his notepad and handed it to Moxie. "I want you to write 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'."

Moxie looked at the pad and then to Vincent-Mike. "I'm ambidextrous now!"

"Yes you are." He gave a nod and a little smile as the animatronic wrote down on the pad and then handed it back to him. He observed the writing with a curious look. "Hmm…Interesting…"

"What is it?"

"Do me another solid," Vincent-Mike said. "Spin around once, take three steps backward, then come and shake my hand."

Moxie shrugged and spun around, stumbling as he did and falling backwards.

"Very interesting…" Vincent-Mike scribbled onto his notepad. He looked back up as Moxie stood and frowned, thinking hard. "Hm…I wonder if you're any different if you're inside a _human's_ body…Maybe the outcome will be different…" He looked at Marionette as if waiting for her approval. She shrugged. "Alright, here we go." He grinned at Moxie. "Brace yourself; it's time to shine." He put a hand on Moxie's shoulder and for a minute his eyes went blank, and the man faltered, then as a tremor went through Foxy, his eyes turned from brown and blue to a pale gray color, and the human blinked and looked up at him.

"Wow. Being a working animatronic is _weird_." Vincent-Foxy said. He threw a glance at Mike beside him, who was still shuddering at the transformation. "Alright in there?"

"Ooww…" The human choked. "Oooww…OOOOWWWWW!" He gripped his stomach and started coughing violently, falling to his knees and clutching at his throat and chest. "I can't breathe!" He gagged, shaking uncontrollably. He moaned, curling and uncurling his fingers. "It _hurts_!" His eyes were wide with panic."It _hurts_!"

"Where?!" Marionette asked, kneeling beside him.

"EVERYWHERE!" He cried, letting out a yell that rang out through the entire building.

"Vincent, _do_ _something_!" She pleaded, looking up at him.

"Look…" Vincent-Foxy pointed to the man.

His eyes were faltering in color and his hands were shifting oddly. Marionette yelped and jumped up, standing away from him. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica peered nervously into the doorway, sending confused looks from Vincent-Foxy and Marionette, to the writhing human on the floor. Face towards the tile, he took in and let out shaking breaths, whimpering.

"It's over," Vincent-Foxy told him. "Sorry you had to go through that, I didn't think it would be that painful."

"What happened?" Chica asked.

"A change in the physical form, like I suspected." He explained to her.

Marionette kneeled down to the man and grabbed his arm to help him up. She blinked in surprise as she did. "Muscle there…that's uh…" Her cheeks glowed. "Nice surprise."

Vicent-Foxy rolled his eyes. "For the love of Christ."

"His clothes look a little tight." Bonnie squinted an eye. "It looks like his collar might choke and kill him." He laughed and threw a glance at Freddy and Chica. "How about _that_ for irony?"

"Here, can you stand?" Marionette asked.

The man, with Marionette's help, stood up with his back to the three. Looking at him, she blinked and her eyes widened. "Oh, wow."

He was much taller than he had been five minutes ago. His jaw was slightly squarer with a red-brown goatee. His hair was a dark reddish brown, somewhat tangled and came down to the middle of the back of his neck, hiding his rounded ears and slightly curtaining one of his brown eyes. Like Bonnie had suggested, his clothes _were_ tighter due to his changed physique.

"Well, _hello_ there, Mr. Sir," Chica grinned.

"Actually, I kind of called dibs because, yeah, I saw him first." Marionette joked with a Z-snap, laughing.

"WHO THE HECK IS _THAT_?!" Freddy asked, throwing out his paw to the man.

Vincent-Foxy threw back his head and laughed. "IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIVE!" He walked around the man, who was starting to calm down, and grinned. "It's aliiiive!" He clapped him on the shoulder. "How do you feel?"

The man spoke with a sea-accented, kind voice. "I feel great." He grinned, showing off a glowing smile. "A little tight but great all the same." He gave a chuckle. "It feels kind of weird, having a pulse, but at the same time it's really normal."

"Yeah, Bonnie's right those clothes are pretty tight, you should probably take your shirt off." Marionette said. "Or your pants…I mean, whatever works for you."

Vincent-Foxy threw down his pad and pen. "I'm done. I'm so done with you."

"No seriously what is that?" Freddy asked.

"We call him Moxie." Vincent-Foxy said.

"That's the gayest thing I've ever heard. And where's Mike?" He asked, looking the man up and down. "And when did _you_ get here?"

"That _is_ Mike." Vincent-Foxy said with a wide grin. "And Foxy. At the same time. A two in one deal. A dynamic duo."

Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie exchanged a frowning look. Freddy shook his head, his mouth frowning intensely. "Nope. No words. I have no words for any of you."

Chica narrowed her eyes at Moxie, taking in all of his features, and frowned, seeing the resemblance. "You ruined it."

Freddy and Bonnie tilted their heads and squinted. "Yeah, I can see Mike." Bonnie said. "But I don't see Foxy all that much. I mean isn't Foxy supposed to be…y'know…a _fox_?"

Vincent-Foxy jerked his hook slightly, as if to snap his fingers, then gave a short sigh and snapped the fingers on his other hand. "That's exactly what I was _afraid_ of. Two things were proven here. 1: You animatronics have souls. 2: Your souls reflect who you are internally- which means they take the form of a human."

Chica grinned. "If this is what Foxy and Mike look like _together_, I _really_ want to see what Foxy looks like by himself."

Bonnie folded his arms and ran a hand over his ears, muttering. "Bet I look better."

Moxie laughed. "Uh… thanks?" He tugged at his collar. "Really, this is killing me." He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and tugged at his shirt cuffs, letting out a sigh. "There we go."

"Mmm I don't know…" Marionette gave a somewhat disapproving look. "It still looks pretty tight, you might wanna undo a few more buttons."

"Get out," Vincent-Foxy said, shoving everyone out of the room with the exception of Marionette who had picked up Vincent's pad and pen and was holding it as if to look productive. He sighed and scratched his head with his hook, frowning at her. "You know what? Fine. I'm done." He looked at the old, chipped yellow rabbit suit. "I want to get back in the springtrap suit, but I don't know how this animatronic will be without a soul to control it."

Marionette shrugged. "Try it."

"You won't mind, will you?" He asked Moxie. The man shrugged in return. "Alright, here goes nothing." He sat down up against the wall and tipped his head down. In a minute, Foxy was limp and the spring trap was alive again. "Ah, the feeling of being dead." He put a hand on the soul-less Foxy's shoulder and paused. "Good, the robot's still running." He turned around, looking Moxie up and down and tightened his mouth. "It looks so weird, but at the same time so wicked rad."

"I know, right?" Marionette grinned at Moxie.

"Not _that_!" Vincent rolled his eyes. "I'm talking about their souls merging." He squinted. "I can see it a little bit…but as a part of my eternal punishment, my vision is an 'on and off' kind of thing, along with being colorblind."

Marionette frowned and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well I can't see anything."

"Hmm…" He tapped his chin and squinted at her. "Here, try this," the dull yellow suit's arms went limp and a pair of ghost ones stuck out, covering her eyes.

"Eeeewww!" She battered at him. "Your ghost hands are gross and _cold_! Why don't you just _come out of the suit_?"

"Because reasons!" He rolled his eyes. "Can you see now?"

"I can see right through your hands."

"Now look at Moxie."

Marionette rolled her eyes and turned her gaze back to the young man, but this time, she blinked in surprise. "Is that his- I mean _their_\- souls?"

"Freaky, isn't it?"

She tilted her head a bit. "It looks like hugging."

"What?" He squinted. "You think that's hugging- How can you _see_ that?"

Moxie looked himself up and down, unable to see what they were looking at and frowning a bit of embarrassed confusion.

"I have ultra-robo-ghosty vision," She smirked. "Why, what do you see?"

"No, I don't know it's like…" He shrugged and tried to find words to fit his observations, but came up with nothing. "I don't know but I have no idea where or how you see _hugging_. I mean I _guess_ me covering your eyes is like a face-hug if you want to be weird, but…" He shook his head, sticking his ghost arms back into the suit. "And _now_…" He waved his hand on one of the shelves of supplies in an empty spot and a transparent radio appeared there. He turned it on and smiled as a song started playing, tapping his foot and slightly dancing to it. Then he stopped. "Sorry. Let's get back to science."

"Is that an actual radio?" Marionette asked, pointing to it.

"Uh, no, not really," He gave a laugh. "I just turn the dials until it plays the song I want."

"Can I mess with it?"

"You _can,_ but I'm telling you not to." He gave her a look.

"Aw, you're no fun." She grumped.

"And you're _too_ _much_ fun." He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Sausage biscuit."

His eyes rounded. "Too far." He then turned to Moxie, picking up his notepad and pen, taking a good three steps away from Marionette. "Okay, physical test. Moxie can you walk in a straight line for me?"

Without limp or falter, the man walked forward and stopped, looking at Vincent. "Like that?"

He grinned widely. "Exo," He scribbled eagerly on his pad. "Okay, you seem pretty good at movement and speech…what about decision making…?" He tapped his pen to his tattered chin. "I already did the Coke and Pepsi one...Sunny days or rainy days?"

"Sunny days." Moxie smiled.

"Winter or summer?"

"Summer."

"Night or day?"

"Night."

Excitedly, Vincent wrote on his notepad. "It's just as I thought…"

"What?" Marionette asked.

"When they were using the animatronic, their souls were still very separated, because the animatronic didn't have the ability to morph physically. THIS time, their souls are kind of merged together because the human body is a little more…morphable. So they have the thought process and mental attitude of one person." He paused and tapped his chin. "Oh gee …that sounds a little…"

Marionette blinked. "You don't think this'll mess with them, do you?"

Vincent paused again. They both slowly turned to look at Moxie, who tugged at his shirt collar again; he looked from Vincent to Marionette and gave a little shrug. Vincent slowly wrote something on his notepad.

"What're you looking at me like that for?" Moxie asked with a bit of a nervous chuckle, looking from Vincent to Marionette.

"Nothing," She smiled, waving her hand innocently at him.

"Anyway," Vincent sighed in slight disappointment. "The physical change is too great for my little plan to actually work. There are too many factors and variables that screw up everything or just not align properly. That and in all honesty I don't know how long two souls can be merged together." He sighed. "Oh well, I tried." He stuffed his note pad into a pocket-like crack in his torn material. "Alright fellas, you can go back to being yourselves now."

"That was quick." Marionette blinked. "You don't want to do anymore tests? At all?"

"Well…" Vincent rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "There's a vast number of biological tests and examinations I could do…but a lot of that needs special, sciencey-medical equipment which I can't just steal."

"Can't you just manifest it ghost-style?"

"Ghost objects only correspond with a ghost, so no, if I was to hook up Moxie to a ghost-manifested EKG, it would take measurements of his (er…._their_) souls, not his physical form."

"So, you can't really do anything?" Marionette lowered the pad and pen.

He sighed. "No. And it's a shame, there's so many questions I have that'll have to go unanswered, unless I can sneak him into a hospital- which is near impossible and completely stupid." Vincent patted the man on the shoulder. "Alright, go on, show's over, fellas, break it up."

Moxie frowned slightly. "What you mean…split up? _Already_?" He shook his head. "No thanks, I kind of like being myself."

Vincent and Marionette exchanged a look. "…Huh?"

He shrugged and smiled. "I like being me, that's all." He walked through them and out the door. "See you later, I'm gonna go join the others."

The two stared after him, and then exchanged a look. "…"

"What does that mean?" Marionette asked. " 'I like being myself'."

Vincent looked from her to Moxy several times, then stared at her and tightened his mouth, shaking his head. "I don't…"

Marionette rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah…uh…listen it's 3:36, I uh…I'm not feeling well, I'm gonna head on home real quick. I might be back, it all depends." She gave Vincent a little wave then sped off, out of the room, down the hall, and out of the building. Vincent ran a hand over his chipped head and let out a breathless sigh. "Oh boy."

"Hey Moxie, what's up?" Bonnie asked as the young man sat down at the table, helping himself to a slice of pizza and a cup of Coke.

"Nothing much. I think I passed all of the tests Vincent had for me." He wiped his mouth with his wrist. "What are you guys doing?"

"Playing cards, wanna join?"

"Sure."

As Chica helped him into the game, Vincent marched out of the supply room and frowned. "No, no, no, don't _encourage_ him!"

"What?" Freddy asked.

"He's supposed to be Mike and Foxy again!"

Bonnie looked up slowly with a frown. "But…he _is_ Mike and Foxy."

"No! He's supposed to be _split_ _up_!"

"Ohhh, okay." He shrugged. "Well, Moxie, you heard him."

Moxie blinked again. "Why?"

"BECAUSE YOU CAN'T BE MOXIE FOREVER!"

"Just a little longer?"

"No!" Vincent shook his hands in frustration. "It might do something _bad_ to you two!"

"We're fine," Moxie leaned back in his chair and smiled.

Freddy and Bonnie exchanged a look. Freddy shuffled his deck of cards briskly, muttering under his breath."Weird. Weirdest crap. Wouldn't have had to deal with this crap back in 86. Nope."

"Alright, _Moxie_," Vincent sighed. "I didn't want to force you two apart, but you leave me no choice." Springtrap's suit went limp and a pale shadow shot into Moxie. The man gripped at his chest and coughed several times, gripping at his throat and shuddering. Then Springtrap came to life with an angry yell. Even the kids stopped playing.

"What happened?" Chica asked.

"They kicked me out!" He growled, picking himself up off the floor.

"Kicked you out?" Bonnie squinted, while Freddy continued to shake his head and mutter in an upset tone.

"YES! Naturally, when the human soul is trying to be pushed from its vessel, it puts up a fight, which is why I find it _incredibly_ queer that Mike's soul doesn't do that. However, the reason Foxy and Mike didn't put up a fight earlier _today_ was because they knew that it was coming, and I meant them no harm." He snorted and glowered at Moxie, who looked at him coolly. "Fine. If I can't separate you from the inside, maybe I can do it from the outside. A sudden attack on the physical body might be enough to chase one of you off." He stepped out with a foot and raised his hands. "But I have to warn you, I was a black belt in karate."

"When you were ten." Freddy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Thirty years isn't that long."

Moxie gave him a friendly smile and stood from his chair, facing Vincent. "Guess I can't say much for myself expect that I'm a pirate. And…well, y'know…"

"What? Is that an insult?" Vincent chuckled with a look in his dead eye.

"Not really," Moxie spread his feet shoulder width apart and raised his fists. "I'm just saying I'm better than you."

Freddy blinked. "Kids, how about you go back to that park and look for more spiders?"

"But we wanna see!" Chris whined, while the four others folded their arms or hung their heads.

"First one to bring me four spiders gets to go first in our next card game." As he finished his sentence, the five ghost children had vanished.

"Okay, go." Bonnie grinned. "Fight to the death."

With a tattered arm, Vincent struck out at his opponent. Moxie clamped his arm in his two hands and flipped him over onto his back with a grunt. Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie exchanged impressed looks. Vincent got up and glowered at him, who gave a snarky grin. He threw a punch to Vincent's face, but the possessed robot ducked and gripped Moxie's shoulder's kneeing him hard in the gut. He grunted and winced, doubling over.

Vincent leaned over him. "Had enough?"

"Not yet." Moxie jumped back, aiming a kick for Vincent's head. It hit him hard in the chin, making his jaw shudder, but he managed to grab Moxie's foot, pulling him forward and sending a blow to his eye. The three animatronics winced as he stumbled backwards, but without missing a beat lunged forward and sent his fist towards Vincent's nose, making his head spin. Giving his opponent no time to recover, Moxie swung a kick towards the animatronic's knees, knocking him off balance and sending him to the ground.

"_What_?" Vincent rubbed his head. "What _is_ _this_?"

"Fight more. I want to see someone cry." Bonnie sipped his soda with a grin.

"Yeah, that's really cool," Chica said. "I've never seen Mike or Foxy fight like that. Come to think of it…I don't think I've ever seen either one of them fight at all."

"Which is exactly why it doesn't make sense," Freddy narrowed his eyes, and then tightened his jaw. "No, no, no, what did I tell you? That's weird as hell and I don't like it."

"Yeah," Vincent stood up slowly and with effort. "You know what else doesn't make sense?" Catching Moxie off guard, he twisted the man's arm behind his back. Moxie frowned, but didn't make a sound. "This doesn't look like it hurts him any, does it?" He released the man and allowed him to throw a blow his way, then sent a roundhouse kick to Moxie's jaw, making the other three wince.

"Ouch," Chica frowned. "Doesn't that _hurt_?"

"It's bearable." Moxie said evenly, not faltering.

"Fascinating." Vincent grinned, staring. "Absolutely fascinating."

"What is?" She asked.

"Oh my god this is so disappointing I wanted to see a knock out." Bonnie groaned.

But Vincent was busy pacing around Moxie, answering Chica's question. "Their judgment is combined, allowing them to make accurate decisions with more efficiency; their reaction time is quicker. And, since their physical form has been altered and…somewhat combined, their self-healing abilities are insane. For example, instead of being winded with a black eye and a broken jaw (which is the state in which the average human would be in at this point), Moxie has _already healed himself_."

"Wait," Chica paused. "You're saying that his wounds are vanishing as he's receiving them?"

Vincent nodded. "Pretty much."

"That's amazing."

"I _know_!" He grinned. "Think of all the possibilities that could come from this! Do you know how strong a person could be? How strong a _soldier_ could be?"

"Wait, _what_?" Moxie frowned, shaking his head slightly. "What are you…_fighting_? You want to _use_ me for _military_? No, that's not what….you can't just…" He clenched and unclenched his fists. "This isn't…you don't just…You're missing the point!"

Freddy gave him a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

Vincent wrinkled his nose. "Dangit I pressed one of his buttons."

Moxie paced quickly back and forth, looking confused and frustrated at the same time. "I'm saying…what I mean is…you can't….it's…." He turned his back on them and shuddered, as he did so, his hair began to shorten, his height decreased slightly, and a shadow morphed around his feet and shot into the supply room. "It's…_weird_." When he faced them again, the person in Moxie's place was Mike.

"Well," Vincent clapped his hands together lightly. "That was easier than expected.

"That was the second weirdest thing I've ever seen." Freddy said in a monotone voice. "I think next time you want to do weird merging experiments I'll pass on being a spectator."

Foxy walked out of the supply closet, rubbing his head. "Weird."

"So." Vincent started. "How do you feel?"

"Can't you ask a different question?" Bonnie frowned.

He nodded and looked at Mike and Foxy again. "What feeling do you posses at the moment?"

Foxy shrugged. "Dunno. Feel like I've been productive."

Mike scratched his forehead. "Yeah me too."

"Yeah okay, I don't care about _now_," Vincent rolled his dead eyes. "I mean what's it like to merge souls?"

"Oh that." Foxy exchanged a look with Mike and shrugged. "Dunno. It is what it is I guess."

"That's it?" He frowned. "Seriously?"

"It's weird." Mike sat down.

"How so?"

"It just is."

Vincent clenched his fists. "You are so frustrating I want to punch you both _in the face_."

"I don't know what exactly you want me to say," Mike shrugged. "If you want to know so much about it, go merge your soul with someone."

He folded his arms and frowned. "I'll pass, I don't blindly do things I don't know much about."

"That so?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "What happened to 'If the flow goes I'll float it' or 'it happens'?"

"Okay, that was before I went schizo-psycho-crazy and met a graphic demise. Now I know things and," He shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah."

Bonnie opened his mouth to say something, but the chiming of the clock rudely interrupted him. "Six AM," He said. "Get lost, Mike."

Mike yawned widely. "Sure thing."

As he walked through the front door, he noticed the television was left on and Marionette was curled up on the couch, fast asleep. On the coffee table was a dark piece of clothing and a tiny black pocket journal. Curious, Mike picked it up and flipped through the pages. It was completely empty, clean as a whistle, as if it was brand new from the store. However, the cover and spine were covered with little cracks, chips, creases and multiple signs of being used over and over again. Giving up, he was about to head into the other room when Marionette stirred beside him and murmured in her sleep.

"No I can't…"

Mike threw a glance at his dog, who was lying in the recliner with his muzzle on the arm rest, watching Marionette with tired, droopy eyes.

"What?" He frowned at Marionette.

"I can't…run...away…with you…" She murmured subconsciously.

Mike grinned maliciously and looked at his dog. "Watch this." Holding back a snicker, he leaned down a little towards Marionette. "Sure you can." She rolled over on her side, turning her shoulder to him.

"Nnnnno…"

He held back a laugh at his joke. "Run away with me, Marionette, we can do it, just you and me."

"Where…?"

"The places. We could be in all the places."

"If you…say so…"

Mike snickered and his dog twitched an ear as if to roll his eyes as his owner headed off into the other room. When the door closed behind him, Marionette twitched in her sleep again, drawing the Doberman's attention away from his empty thoughts.

"It'd be nice…to run away….with you…y-…._Mike_?!" Her eyes opened and she groaned. "Uuuuuggghh," Sitting up, she put a hand on her forehead. She shook her head slowly and looked at Spike. "I had a really weird dream."

**Alright so lots of uninteresting things here. It's going to take me a while to write more because I have many important things to take care of and this story is not in my top 5 priorities. So, yeah. My goal is to have a chapter a week, but it's kind of turning into one chapter every two weeks. So yep. I didn't know how to end the chapter so don't read too much into the ending.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Wanna know a secret? This was ACTUALLY gonna be the second to last chapter (the last chapter of intense stuff) but then I decided that I'd drag the story out more. There's actually going to be a lot more chapters…so yeah, that didn't go as well as past FOTO expected. **

"Hey, Rex, have you seen Mike today?" Clove asked her coworker as steered a child away from the supply closet. He turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Nope. Why?"

She shrugged. "Just wondering. He usually swings by every day for a bit and I haven't seen him today."

"Mmhm," He gave her a look.

She frowned at him and folded her arms. Rex laughed and ran a hand over his Mohawk, which, as usual, was earning a number of disapproving looks from parents.

"Did you need to tell him something or did you just need him to walk through the door so you can walk around in circles embarrassed?"

Clove's face turned red, but she folded her arms and turned up her nose at him. "I just wanted to see if he knew the new 'regulation' boss started."

Rex's humor dropped a bit. "Oh yeah," He looked towards Pirate Cove. "You'd think people would be a little over the whole 'Bite of '87' thing, it's not like anyone _died_ after that."

"I know…Honestly, I don't really understand why boss doesn't just shut the old thing down; it's got that tear in the front and everything."

Rex shrugged. "I dunno. Y'know, Janice had these weird suspicions about them; that there was more to them and stuff." He frowned and rolled his eyes. "She's crazy. I mean, yeah, they say some weird stuff sometimes but they're _robots_."

The door to the manager's office door opened and one of the other employees walked out. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes and briskly walked over to Rex and Clove.

"What's the word, hummingbird?" Rex asked her, shoving his hands in his pockets.

She frowned. "My name is Macy," she tossed her bangs away as they swooped back over her eyes. "Boss wants to have a meeting, but since it's during business hours, he's seeing us two at a time."

"What about? That new regulation?" Clove asked.

"No. The night guard called in real sick today, boss needs someone to fill in for him tonight."

Foxy, stuck sitting in Pirate Cove again, sighed and leaned back against the wall. It'd been a while since he'd been in this situation; stuck alone in the dark hallway all day. Oh well, it was what it was and there wasn't much changing it. He'd seen the group of parents confront the manager and as far as he was concerned, he was thankful he wasn't shut down. Still, it wasn't any fun doing nothing all day.

"Hey Foxy- they've locked up, you can come out now!" Bonnie's voice called from the main room.

Arching his back in a stretch, he headed out of the hall to join the others.

Bonnie, Freddy, and Chica were sitting at the table around half a cake. Chica waved at Foxy with a smile as she saw him. "Think this'll cheer you up?" She asked.

He shrugged with a lazy grin and sat down beside Bonnie, who was flipping through the pages of the photo album, nearing the last page. Foxy choked on his bite of cake with a laugh as he saw a photo of the younger Mike sitting on the shoulders of Bon and Fred.

"Okay, everyone, here you go." Vincent walked out of the hidden hallway with several sheets of paper in his hand. He passed one to each animatronic. "Foxy, I'm still not so sure what I'm going to have you do for this one, but I don't know, I guess we'll see."

Freddy frowned at the piece of paper. "A song?"

Chica beamed. "Did you write this yourself?"

"I did," Vincent said absentmindedly as Bonnie hummed the beginning notes. "I was a music major in college."

"Why didn't you get a job in the music field, then?" Bonnie asked.

"I did say _was_."

"You wrote this all _today_?" Chica asked, looking her part over.

"Yep."

She sighed. "And after 20 years, I still couldn't do it."

"I like it," Freddy said. "It's got a catchy ring to it."

"Lyrics are kinda dark, eh?" Foxy tipped his eye patch up, looking over Bonnie's shoulder.

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish look. "Well…the kids really wanted to have a part in it, so I kind of let them help me out."

"You just can't say 'no' to them, can you?" Freddy raised an eyebrow. "You've already taken them to half of Europe."

"Wait…what?" Bonnie blinked.

"What do you think we do during the day?" Vincent asked him. "Stay cooped up in that dark, bloody closet?" He shrugged. "Since ghosts can pretty much teleport, and traveling doesn't cost a dime, we go visit places."

"Where've you gone so far?"

"Let's see…" Vincent ran a tattered hand over his head. "Venice, Florence, Paris, London…and I think we went somewhere in Germany." He turned his head to the hidden hallway. "Hey kids! Where'd we go yesterday?"

Paul floated over to join them, soon followed by the other four. "Spain." He said.

"That's right," Vincent snapped his fingers. "Where do you guys wanna go tomorrow? I was thinking somewhere in South America- seeing the Aztec ruins."

"Can we go to Venice?" Laura asked, Chris and John nodded eagerly.

"_Again_?"

"Yeah, can we ride the boat again?" Chris asked.

Vincent threw back his head. "We rode the freakin gondola twenty million times." He then sighed. "If you all want to."

"Can we listen to the singing people again?" Jess asked.

"That was in Florence." Vincent told her. He turned to the animatronics. "Do you know how many ghosts there are in Florence? A lot. We found an entire choir singing in an old church."

"And Vincent got a _girlfriend_." Laura snickered.

"That was not me getting a girlfriend. That was you and Jess pointing to the lead singer and yelling 'SHE'S PRETTY VINCENT, YOU SHOULD ASK HER OUT!' and then the whole choir staring at me because they probably spoke ITALIAN and understood nothing."

"But she was smiling." Jess said.

"She was smiling because Chris ran over to her after her solo and said 'HEY MY FRIEND THINKS YOUR HOT!' And she understood NOTHING because she speaks ITALIAN, PROBABLY."

The kids giggled. "But you did like her."

He rolled his eyes. "I said 'She has a nice pitch'. How does that magically translate into 'I think she's hot and I should date her'?!"

"Sounds like you've had a good vacation." Freddy sipped his soda.

"You better hurry back to Florence so you can flirt with that Italian singer." Chica grinned.

Vincent glued his hands to his hips. "Uh huh, and how's that gonna work out?" He raised his pitch and swayed on his feet in a girly manner. " 'Oh, so are those your kids?'" He leaned back and deepened his pitch. " 'No, actually, they're my five victims, you see I murdered them and put their bodies in animatronic suits.'" He fluttered his eyes in a girly way and crossed his hands over his chest. " 'Wow, we should _totally_ be a thing!'" He gave the four a sarcastic look.

The five kids erupted into laughter and Bonnie snickered while Chica, Freddy, and Foxy relaxed at the way the children the children took the reminder of their demise.

From the front of the building, they heard the front door swish open and several quick footsteps walk into the office and quickly shut the door. The animatronics and ghosts paused.

"Sounds like someone's having an antisocial day," Bonnie quirked his eyebrows and turned another page in the photo album.

Foxy smiled. "I can fix it." He stood up and left the table, heading down the darkened hallway. "Mikey!" He called. "Somethin' wrong, lad?" He frowned at the silence he received and ventured on. "Mikey?" The door was shut tight. Confused, Foxy raised his hook and tapped on it. "Mikey, it's me. Somethin'…somethin' wrong, lad?" He peeked through the window.

Sitting at the desk with her face half hidden behind her screen and her eyes staring widely at him was Clove.

Foxy frowned. "You're not Mikey."

A ringing sound echoed through the halls and was cut off after a few moments. "Hey Foxy! Telephone for you!" Bonnie called from the manager's office. No sooner had he done so, Foxy had shoved him aside and grabbed the phone from his hands. Bonnie rolled his eyes and walked out of the office.

"Foxy?"

"Yes, what, Marionette?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd panic."

"Where's you and Mikey?"

"Mike says he's feeling really dizzy all of time and it's making him sick. Yeah. It's not fun. For either of us. He's gross."

"Sick? How sick? Are you at the hospital? Is it terminal?"

"What? We're at home, ditzy! He's just got a fever!"

"What if he has the _cancer_?"

"Foxy, no he doesn't have 'the cancer'. I told you, he's just been feeling dizzy-"

"I'm on my way right now."

"What? No! Don't-"

Foxy hung up the phone and without another word, walked out of the office, down the hallway, and out the front door.

Bonnie, Freddy, and Chica exchanged a look.

"What was all _that_ about?" Chica asked.

"Oh Mike's sick today so some other worker is the night guard tonight." Bonnie said, waving his paw absent mindedly. He then paused and slow raised his head, a grin growing on his face. "Hey Freddy. I have an idea."

Freddy nodded, putting down his cup of soda. "Guys. Let's give this temporary night guard a warm welcome."

Chica and Bonnie high fived.

"Oh, fine. I see. I write a song for you guys and you wanna sing it? Nope. Na. Let's instead terrify this temporary night guard because we're horrible. That's wonderful!" Vincent threw up his hands.

"What are we gonna do now?" Chris asked. "They don't usually like us running around when there's a night guard here…other than Mike because Mike knows us."

Vincent shrugged. "We can go and play a board game in the closet, if you want."

"Can we play 'Sorry'?" Paul asked

"No, I wanna play 'Candy Land'!" Laura whined.

"How about I teach you kids how to play poker?" Vincent rubbed his chin and lead them into the hidden hallway.

Aching, feeling weak, hot, and cold all together, Mike turned over uncomfortably on the couch. He could hear the sounds of a sit comedy on the television and as he turned towards it he could feel its electronic light through his closed eyes. He groaned and rolled over on his stomach, which sent a nauseous swirl through it. He heard Spike's claws ka-clicking on the kitchen floor and in a minute warm dog breath was breathed in his face, making him want to vomit.

"No," he moaned, too tired to try and push his pet away. "No."

"Drink your ginger ale," Marionette said from the kitchen. "I put more ice in it for you, you're welcome."

Mike opened his eyes and looked at his cup of ginger ale sitting on the coffee table. As soon as he did, his head started to pound like a drum and a dizzy feeling swept through him. It hurt too much to sit up and made him awfully dizzy, and it would be an effort just to reach out and hold the cup…but he was thirsty. He rolled over on his back again and whined. Spike, being a dog and being picky about where he sat, climbed up on the other side of the couch, stepping on his owners feet and tried to make himself comfortable.

"No…Spike…no…stop…no…." But it was too late; with a grunt, Spike had curled up and closed his eyes. "Why."

Now, feeling his feet crushed by the weight of a Doberman, Mike leaned his head back on the throw pillow and opened his eyes slowly. A faint light from the lamp on the end table caught his attention. He tilted his head back and saw a familiar figure sitting in his recliner.

"Feelin' any better, lad?" Foxy asked him with a smile.

"Marionette, call the doctor, I'm hallucinating." He said in a hoarse voice.

"No, you're not," Marionette walked out of the kitchen and across the living room to the empty sofa with a soda in her hand. "After he realized you were sick, El Foxo over there panicked and came here because he thought you had 'the cancer'."

Mike gave a weak laugh. "'The cancer'?"

"I never said I thought he had the cancer, I said '_what_ _if'_ he has the cancer." Foxy said, leaning back.

Marionette chuckled. "Just the way you say it cracks me up."

"_The_ cancer," Mike grinned.

"As in '_the_ tuberculosis'."

" '_The_ malaria.'"

" '_The_ mono'."

Foxy glowered.

Mike coughed. "Why did Vincent come by earlier?"

Marionette frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

He rolled over, turning his back to them. "Vincent came down the street earlier with a trombone."

Foxy exchanged a look with Marionette. "To the house?" She pressed.

"He stopped at the gate."

The two paused. After they heard nothing more than a muffled snore from their friend, Foxy lowered his voice. "What's he goin' on about?"

"I think he's just sleep talking." Marionette shrugged.

The next morning's sun rose in the sky with bright rays, but the ending October's atmosphere allowed for little heat. Rex, wearing a bulky coat over his uniform, leaned against the front doors of the pizzeria, waiting for the other employees to arrive so they could set up for the day. He was always 45 minutes early; his biggest pet peeve was being late- that and he was a bit of a morning person. Though his coworkers called him crazy, he reveled in the feeling of not worrying of being late. Being late was such a horrible rush and it looked bad on a person's reputation, he thought.

On this particular day, however, as the cars of his coworkers began to fill the parking lot, he noticed a very strange air about Clove as she walked up to him. She looked tired, as if she'd run a marathon with a creepy guy with an axe chasing her the whole way.

"Mike is the bravest man I've ever met."

"If you say so." He rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious. You think he's all chill? I don't think so. I think he's…I don't even know."

"Clove, seriously, stop. You're starting to sound a lot like Janice."

Clove paused, tapping her fingertips together and threw a glance at him. "Maybe…Janice was onto something."

Rex stopped and looked up, a gust from the winds of distress and worry had blown into his face. "Oh God no, Clove, not you too."

"I'm serious!" She lowered her voice as they entered the restaurant. "Rex, you don't know what goes on here after hours. Maybe all that crazy stuff from the 80s has a _lot_ more to it."

He gave her a look. "Clove."

"Rex, I'm not kidding with you." She looked him in the eye. "Come here after hours and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's _messed_ _up_."

He shook his head and shouldered her off.

"Okay, let's try it again." Vincent said, looking up on stage to the three animatronics scanning their music. "There's something about this that doesn't…_fit_."

"Is it the key signature maybe?" Bonnie asked. "You always stop us at the same measure…I think one of the chords needs to be changed. It sounds a little sharp."

"No, no, no, it's supposed to sound like that." Vincent said, scratching his head. "Chica, I think one of your drums is out of tune."

Chica tapped each drum on her drum set and shook her head. "I tuned them this morning, they're all fine."

"You can't tune a drum." Mike said, his voice still hoarse and cracking from being ill the night before.

"Says you, Mike who's never taken a music class in the history of ever." Chica said.

"Kinda walked into that one, lad." Foxy said, his arm slung around his friend.

"I took music theory…" He folded his arms.

"I-I took a music theory class in high school." Bonnie mocked his cracking voice. "You sound like you're still there."

"Hm…" Vincent rubbed his chin. "Try it again." He snapped his fingers as the three on stage played and cut them off halfway through, looking at the sheet music in his hand. "There's something about this whole thing that I just hate." He looked at John and Laura who were on either side of him. "What do you think?"

"It sounds good to me." John said.

"It sounds fizzy." Laura said, wrinkling her nose.

Vincent snapped his fingers. "Fizzy, that's it." He smiled at her. "Thank you, Laura." He turned to the others. "It's the snare drum. I hate it."

"It's in tune in everything…what else is there to do?" Chica shrugged.

"No, no, it's not you, it's the type of snare itself."

Freddy frowned. "So what '_other_ _snare'_ do you want us to use."

Vincent slowly smiled. The cracked mouth of the possessed animatronic grinned from ear to ear. "You want to know what snare I want to use?"

"Oh no."

"He's got that look."

Vincent swung his head around to look at all of them. "You want to know what this song REALLY needs? You want to know what would make this sound PERFECT?!"

"Vincent…"

"Dear God, please no."

"A REAL snare." Vincent clasped his hands together. "A LOUD snare. One that pops and cracks when you hit it." He grinned wider and looked happier than the ghost kids had ever seen him. "A _marching_ snare." His eyes sparkled.

"Freakin' NO." Bonnie said.

"Vincent, where on Earth are we gonna get a marching snare?" Chica drooped her arms.

This only made him grin (if possible) even wider. His whole existence seemed to glow. "From the band room, of course."

Freddy frowned. "Vincent, no, we are not going to the town's high school _band_ _room_ at four in the morning."

"I can't believe we're going to the town's high school band room at four in the morning!"

"It's a wonderful idea that I came up with and it is perfect and flawless in every way possible!" Vincent grinned, leading them down the night splashed sidewalk into town.

"This is a _horrible_ idea!" Marionette glared at him. "_Stealing_ a _snare_ _drum_ from the _band_? How _low_ are you?!"

"Yeah, stealing from the _nerds_, who does that?" Mike frowned.

"Mike I can't talk to you right now, you're not walking in step with the rest of us." Vincent turned up his nose.

"Oh _come_ _on_!"

"It's not that bad," Bonnie shrugged. "I mean, this _is_ Chica's first time out of the restaurant so it's good for her."

"There's so many things everywhere." Chica said, turning her head this way and that to get a better look at her surroundings.

"Do you really think it was a good idea to leave the kids alone back at the restaurant?" Marionette asked.

"They'll be fine, I trust them." Vincent promised. "Netflix will keep their little minds busy for hours."

"Wait, we're not actually walking straight through the main intersections of TOWN are we?!" Freddy growled.

"Of course not," Vincent gestured to the building nearest to them. It was across the street and had a little road running along right next to it, making it able for a driver to turn right off of the main road and go behind the building. "That little street next to the pawn shop will take us straight to the high school."

"You know, you could've told me we were doing this in advance and I could've just gotten the car up here and _driven_ us all to the school." Marionette shrugged, her dark cloak hiding her. She took her hood off. "But nooooo, we have to walk."

"What's wrong with walking?" Mike asked. Marionette looked back at him and shook her head.

"Guys, come on, this is a fun trip and I am a good person for doing this." Vincent said as they quickly crossed the street. "You all finally get to see the high school and finally understand why people walk around sporting all of these black and gold colored t-shirts." He grinned. "I should sneak you guys into a football game…"

"No." Several voices growled.

"Everyone kept telling me I should go to the football games," Mike said. "But whenever I went I always ended up having no one to sit with. One time, the band starting making fun of me so I never went to a football game again."

Vincent burst out laughing and Bonnie shook his head. "Dear God, Mike, you let the band bully you?"

Mike folded his arms. "The brass guys were scary."

Again, Vincent laughed, raising his hand with a grin. "I was one of those lovely low brass guys." He waved his chipped hand and a ghost trombone appeared in it.

"You played the trombone?" Chica asked.

"That explains a lot." Bonnie raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah I know," The ghost-possessed robot grinned. "I was on drum line once." He tightened his jaw. "Once. And then my senior year I was drum major and I got to wear the cape on my uniform and it was amazing."

They continued down the little road lined with welcome-looking houses, all with their lights turned off for the night. The ghost trombone vanished from Vincent's hands and he looked up with a grin; pointing ahead.

"There, can you see it?" He asked them. "It's, really not fancy, rich-looking school. At least…not in the front." He grinned broadly. "Wait till you see the inside; that's the best part."

He was very right. It looked like a forest had grown around the thing. The brick buildings looked very old and worn and there seemed to be absolutely nothing new about it. It was, however, a two story high school...well, in _some_ buildings it was. The first and frontal building stretched divided into three along the entire width of the parking lot. The middle building had very elaborate double doors which was the front entrance. Much, much further down, at the very end of the last building, where the parking lot ended and was absorbed by fencing and an untamed sea of weeds, was an almost porch-like slab of covered sidewalk which housed two windowless, knob-less, beaten looking double doors that had been painted vividly in the school colors.

"That there," Vincent pointed. "That's the band room entrance. It's close to the parking lot so it's much easier to load and unload equipment after bus trips."

"The band room is awfully close to the front of the school." Freddy commented, wrinkling his nose.

"Mmm…it's actually the back if you want to look at it this way. See, the parking lot kind of wraps around the front and half of the left side of the school…and most people enter through the right side doors- it avoids the office and usually is close to a lot of the athletic rooms." He tossed his head."The MUSICAL athletes like to stay where we won't be bothered. But that's not important, come on, let's go." He briskly half tip-toed, half jogged through the open gate and across the parking lot towards the band room.

"Odd," Freddy frowned as they walked through the gate. "Why is it left open?"

"Maybe some genius forgot to close it." Bonnie suggested, following Vincent, who kept waving them forward.

"How are we gonna get in, smarty? There isn't even a knob on the door!" Marionette called to him as he stood at the beaten and painted double doors waiting for them. He was staring at the chipped painting of a big growling black bear-the mascot- with the school's name that decorated the doors. Just under the painting was the name of the band director.

"Well, what do you know?"

"What is it?" Chica asked.

"My pal Joey, he's the band director now," Vincent grinned.

"Vincent, nobody cares. Tell us how to open the door."

Freddy looked at the doors with a frown. "They look locked."

Foxy ran a finger across his hook. "Might have to break in…What a shame…we have to break in? Okay, if you say so let's break in."

"No," Vincent knocked three times on the band room doors; once at the very top, once at the very bottom, and once at the far left. Then he kneed the door and it cracked open. "Careful, we're entering through the back, so don't trip on any drum line equipment it is very expensive."

"Wow," Mike said, poking his head through the door. "It's really roomy." He stepped inside, careful to avoid the setup of snares, bases, tenors, and cymbals.

"Oh god, it smells like sweat in here." Bonnie wrinkled his nose.

"Correction: it smells like sweat, instruments, instrument polish, valve oil, old carpet, and old, old, old, very old band room." Vincent said, filing them all in. "And it's wonderful."

"What are all of the doors for?" Marionette asked, taking a look at all of the doors ling the band room walls, which were decorated with posters and bulletin boards and many, many, many plaques and trophies.

"The double doors are the other main entrance to the band room, one door leads to the drum major's room, one door leads to the band director's office, one door leads to the coaches' and assistants' office, one door leads to the uniform room/ music library, and the door that's always open leads to the instrument room." Vincent explained. "You're welcome." He walked across the room, cluttered with sheet music, hoodies, and various other nerdly things, leading them towards the instrument room. "Freddy, do me a favor, take one of those snares off of its stand and bring it in here."

"Fine," Freddy said, looking at each snare.

Vincent walked into instrument room and took a deep breath. "Smells wonderful."

"Smells like sweaty band kids." Chica laughed.

"That's because of this," Vincent walked over to a baritone locker and swung the door open, showing off a pile of clothes.

"Ew!" Marionette groaned, causing Vincent to laugh.

"It happens when you're in marching band." He said. "Seriously, they just need to put a washing machine and dryer in the hallway over there and everything would be just peachy keen." He scanned the room and gasped as he saw writing on one of the locker doors, which was left open to reveal a trombone case. "I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THIS!"

"What?" Bonnie asked. "Is that your trombone?"

"No," Vincent laughed, looking at the locker door. The writing on it read: 'Vincent's soul lives here'. "I forgot, I swore that when I died my soul would just come back and haunt the band room."

"When I took music theory class, the band director wouldn't let me in here." Mike said, opening and closing a locker door.

"Well, you know, they can't have wild animals near the instruments." Bonnie explained, causing Foxy to laugh.

"Here's the snare," Freddy said, setting it down. "I brought the harness too."

"Thanks," Vincent said, turning his attention to the drum.

"Harness?" Mike echoed.

"When we march, we put the drum on a harness that goes over your shoulders." Vincent explained, attaching the snare to its harness and giving it a good crack with a drum stick.

"Can I try it on?"

"Sure, here," Vincent picked up the drum and hoisted the harness over Mike, who stumbled with its weight.

"It's really heavy," He said, bouncing lightly on his feet. "And uncomfortable."

Bonnie laughed at him. "You look like a nerd."  
"You should be proud," Vincent said, sliding the drum sticks into his hands. "Go ahead, give it a try."

Mike shrugged his shoulders under the harness. "I don't know. This is really heavy; it hurts my back."

"Boy, you really are a wimp." Vincent took the snare and harness off of him and threw it over himself.

"Hey I…I think I heard something." Marionette whispered.

"The sounds of my beating heart." Vincent laughed, then he stopped, looking at everyone's frowns. "Okay, hang on. Does anyone here watch 'Chanteys'? That show on Netflix…? Anyone…?"

Mike slowly raised his hand and Vincent met him in an energetic high five. "YES! YES!"

"I thought I was the only one!" Mike grinned.

"Me too!"

"What's Chanteys?" Freddy asked.

"The best show ever," Mike laughed. "It's _hilarious_."

"But it is super offensive," Vincent shook his head with a grin. "It's _so_ bad, but it's the best. We need to all just have a Chanteys marathon at the restaurant one day."

"Seriously, shut up!" Marionette glared at them. "I think there's someone in the band room!"

"Oh please, who's gonna be in the band room and five in the morning?" Vincent rolled his eyes and lead them out of the locker room. As he did so, he stopped and the seven felt nearly seventy pairs of eyes being attached to them. "Oh…that's right…the marching band is…"

The tired high school band students, drum majors, and band staff all stared at the eight with rounded eyes. A boy in the very back of the room raised his finger. "That's my…snare…Give me back…my snare."

There was a very long, very still, very silent pause.

"NO!" Leaning back, Vincent broke into a sprint through the other double doors leading to the rest of the campus.

"Wait!" Freddy yelled, racing after him with the others hot on his trail.

"HEY!" The drum line students bellowed, throwing down what was in their hands and chasing after them.

"Drum line, no, wait, STOP!" The band director cried. But it was too late, his students had run off. In a mix of worry and outrage, the band director ran after them, leaving the rest of the band and the band staff to simply stare in a wide-eyed daze.

"Split up!" Vincent called over his shoulder. "Find a way off campus somehow!"

"Split up?!" Marionette asked, taking a left down a hallway that lead out to a courtyard.

"THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA!" Freddy roared, taking a right and heading into a long hallway.

"Catch me if you can, DUMMERS!" Bonnie cackled, following Chica and Vincent out the building and across a courtyard, but taking a left into a different building.

"I wonder what's in the cafeteria," Chica turned away from Bonnie and ran down another hallway.

Having stayed in the same building as the band room, Foxy and Mike raced up a flight of stairs with three drum line members on their tale. One lunged forward and tackled Mike to the ground. Foxy skidded to a halt, whirling around. Seeing his friend attacked, he snarled and barked at the kid, who ran away screaming. An older drum line member met Foxy with an equally burning glare.

Freddy ran down a dark hallway lined with classrooms. Two drum line girls were following him, sprinting in step. Thoughtlessly, he threw open a classroom door and slipped inside, slamming it shut. His eyes scanned the room for a place to hide, but the option he could see was crashing through the window. Unless…

Chica ran across a courtyard with a fountain in the middle and into a large building with few windows. As she did, she instantly became disappointed. The two story building was decorated elegantly with bookshelves, desks, tables, and chairs. "Hey, this isn't the cafeteria!" Three pairs of instep footsteps from behind told her that wasn't important right now. She raced up the winding stair case to the second floor and hid behind the bookshelves.

As Bonnie ran through a string of oddly shaped buildings, he realized he was at the rather 'sportsy' section of the campus. With two drum line kids angrily chasing after him, he ran through a hallway with water fountains, through double doors, and started across a basketball court. "Nice," He commented, observing the squeaky waxed floor. He turned around to look at the kids and starting running backwards. "Hey, toss me the ball, I betcha I could dunk it without looking!" But all he got back in response were furious glares. "Oh fine!" He rolled his eyes and faced forward again, bursting through another pair of double doors and into another hallway. He caught side of a side door to his left and veered into it, slamming the door shut behind him. As he did, he froze, taking in the sight of the sparkling pom-poms and glittery-dazzling skirts and uniforms all characterizing the cheerleader's room. "So _this_ is what Mike did in high school."

Her cloak billowing as she ran, Marionette sprinted through the outdoor hallways of the campus, cutting across courtyards and jumping over benches and tables as she did so. She looked through the upper windows of a two story building to her far left and caught sight of Foxy and Mike sprinting side by side chased angrily by two drum line boys. She threw a glance behind her at her own pursuer and glowered at the short drum line girl she saw. Veering right, Marionette dashed through a dark, out-door pass that opened up to a concrete stadium, illuminated aquamarine by the 10-laned glowing jewel in the middle. "Don't tell me…" But her pursuer wasn't slowing down. Using the diving block to propel her forward, she launched herself into the 8-foot deep lane, icy, chlorine flavored water covered her and bubbles fizzed up towards the surface. Kicking out and swimming forward, another loud splash in the water told her that the drum line student had dived in as well.

"Now, don't split up, ye here?" Foxy told Mike as they ran across an overpass into the second story of another building.

"Got it," Mike gave a nod. As he did, something hard hit him in the back and he whirled around, stumbled and fell. He pushed himself up and headed straight down the hallway he saw ahead of him, but strangely, Foxy had somehow vanished. He raced down a hallway with a large banner that read 'HONORS' and into a classroom. The room was filled with long tables, test tubes, bottles, glass equipment, a few bottles of colored liquid, and absolutely zero places to hide. As a drum line member burst through the door, Mike instinctively grabbed a bottle of pink liquid and threw it at him. Its contents spilled over the kids face and he let out a squeal, throwing his hands to his eyes. "IT GOT IN MY EYE! IT GOT IN MY EYE!" Seizing his opportunity, Mike pushed the kid aside and ran out of the room.

Freddy huddled in the cramped spaces underneath a history teacher's desk. The two drum line girls kicked the door open and halted their fast pace as they walked into the room. "Where'd he go?" One asked the other.

"I don't know…I don't see him."

"It looked like a bear."

"I think it was a guy in costume."

"Why would a guy in a bear costume come to the high school?"

Freddy jumped up, throwing the large desk forward and toppling it over, scattering countless stacks of paper and drawing a scream out of the two girls. Seeing as they were blocking his exit, he threw open a window and leaped out.

Free of the locker rooms and uniforms, Bonnie ran out of the athletic building and onto a large grassy yard. There, he could see the school buildings around him and get a view of just about every sports field. He slid down a steep slope into the baseball diamond and, grinning to himself, tapped his foot on home plate, ran to first base, then stopped when he got to second. At the top of the slope, he could see Marionette spiriting across the grassy yard in the direction of the soccer field.

"Look Marionette!" He yelled, grinning. "I made it to second base! Are you jealous?"

"Been there! Done that!" Marionette called back without looking at him, her cloak flying behind her and her pursuer hot on her trail.

"What's that supposed to mean?" But his question was quickly cut off as he was tackled into the dirt by two drum line boys.

Chica, sneaking as quietly as she could through the maze of library bookshelves, made her way to the window and peaked out. From where she stood, she could see Freddy running full speed towards the parking lot on the left side of the school and Marionette running across the soccer field with a pursuer.

"GOTCHA!"

Chica whirled around and caught sight of one of the three students that were following her. She pulled a book off of the shelf nearest to her and threw it at his foot. He gave a yelp and jumped back, giving her time to run. She rounded a corner and ran right into another drum line member with an armful of books. When he saw her, he laughed and threw his stash at her.

"Hey!" She caught one of them in her mouth and chewed on it angrily. He jumped in surprised confusion and took a few steps back. She spit the book at him and backed away, tripping over a little table. The third drum line member ran over with a very large text book raised over his head. Frantically, Chica flipped the table at them, making them jump back, and sprinted downstairs, out of the library.

Mike ran through the 'HONORS' hallway still with a student on his tail. He burst through two double doors and out on a little balcony where there were two chairs and a little table. He looked over the balcony and then at the student behind him, blocking the double doors. The kid grinned and shook his head.

"End of the line, _night_ _guard_."

Mike blinked. "I guess it is." He swung over the balcony and jumped off. He heard the kid scream as he fell into Foxy's arms.

"HE JUMPED! OH MY GOD HE JUMPED! HE JUST JUMPED!"

"You alright, lad?" Foxy asked, helping Mike onto his feet and leading him on at a fast pace through the school.

"Can't complain," He gave a half-shrug, running alongside him. "I think one of them threw a drum stick at my head.

"Guys, come on!" Freddy was yelling at them from ahead, running across and open stretch of grass parallel to the football field and waving his arms to signal them over. Chica was just behind him. Far ahead was a couple small buildings and then, at last, the parking lot. As Foxy and Mike caught up to them, a yell from behind caught his attention.

"Hey, guys!" Bonnie yelled, racing alongside Marionette coming from the direction of the other athletic fields.

"Where's Vincent?" Marionette asked as they caught up, her cloak was soaking wet.

"Oh my God." Freddy said, looking in the direction of the football field. The sight made all six of them stop cold in their tracks.

Vincent was sprinting across the football field at full speed, holding the snare drum high above his head like a parade balloon. The band director was chasing after him. Throwing a glance back at him, Vincent cackled and started singing the school's fight song at the top of his voice.

"VINCENT JUST GIVE UP ALREADY BEFORE THE COPS GET HERE!" Freddy bellowed.

"NEVER!" Came the stubborn response. Vincent turned around, sprinting backwards. "Come on, Joey, we don't wanna be late to band practice! Old Mr. Mez is gonna kill us if we're late! We're gonna miss warm ups, Joey!" He howled with laughter.

"_V-Vincent_?" The band director stumbled to a stop, his eyes rounded.

As the ghost-possessed animatronic jumped the fence into the parking lot, the director stumbled and fell backwards, fainting.

"Let's bail." Bonnie said, catching sight of the large group of drum line kids running up and gathering around their fallen band director.

The six picked up speed and raced around the last few buildings into the parking lot, where Vincent was already running through the open gate.

"…So wait, you're all caught up on Chanteys?" Were the words that started the conversation as the seven all made their way back to the restaurant.

"Yeah, I'm waiting on season two." Mike said. "What about you?"

"Same as you." Vincent gave a laugh. "Things got real intense real fast after that last episode."

"So, wait, is this like a TV show you guys are talking about or…?" Chica shrugged.

"Yeah, kind of." Mike shrugged.

"It's a comedy," Vincent explained. "A very offensive, very hilarious comedy that is wonderful and horrible and should be kept out of reach of children." He opened the front door to the pizzeria just as the clock inside it started chiming the new hour. "Six AM."

"Vincent! Vincent! Look what we got!" Five voices came running down the hallway towards him, but all paused as they saw the seven pile into the building.

"Wow! What's that?" Chris asked, looking at the marching snare.

"It's a snare drum," Vincent said, carrying it down the hallway. "Now what are you five so excited about."

"We got a letter." Paul said.

"A ghost letter." John added.

"It's from the Italian singer in Florence!" Laura grinned.

Vincent stopped, setting the snare on the stage, and whirled around on his heel. "Oh is it now?" He glued his hands on his hips and leaned his neck back, tilting his chin down.

"Mmhm!" Chris handed him a pale, ghost envelope.

"How does she know where you…haunt?" Freddy asked, frowning.

"Ghosts can send messages and things with will power and teleportation," Vincent said, tearing the envelope open. "We roll like that, don't we, kids?" He gave John a high five and opened the letter, reading it over. He gave a little smile as he did.

"What's it say?" Marionette asked.

"I have no idea. I don't speak Italian."

"Well, that's great guys, I'm glad. This was fun. The police are going to be giving me funny looks from now on, probably, but I'm going home." Mike yawned getting his jacket.

"Why was the band at the school at 5 in the morning?" Foxy asked Vincent.

"Early morning rehearsals. For some reason, they're never allowed to practice on the football field, so we all meet up at the band room for roll, and then we go to the park for practice." Vincent explained, handing the letter back to the kids.

"Yeah, that'll be fun." Mike groaned as Foxy clapped his shoulder. "I have to walk by them every morning whenever I leave work."

"At least you weren't chased through a swimming pool." Marionette gestured to her slowly drying cloak.

It was around closing time at the pizzeria. The employees were all waving goodbye to the guests and preparing to lock up. Some were in the kitchen, a few were putting the animatronics in their temporary sleep mode, and a few were cleaning. Clove was sweeping up around the stage, she looked up and saw Mike talking one of the other employees. _Why does he always stop by? _She wondered to herself. He threw a glance in her direction and she flushed and quickly looked back to what she was doing. A sharp popping sound from behind the wall caught her attention. She frowned and set the snare against the stage, looking around. Mike had walked off down the hallway with the other employee and it didn't look like anyone else was around.

Clove stared at the wall again. As she did, she could see the tiniest nick in it, right along a straight groove. It was invisible. It was like it didn't exist, but now that she noticed it, it stuck out like a sore thumb. There was a door in the wall; a hidden door. A door that somehow never existed until today. Throwing a glance around her to make sure no one was looking, she hooked her fingers into the nick in the wall and pulled. Oddly, it was a sliding door and slid left with such ease it surprised her. Now in front of her was a dark, hidden hallway with three doors; one on the left side, one on the right side, and one in the very back.

Feeling anxious, Clove stepped into the darkened hallway. A scuffing noise from the room on the left caught her attention. Her hands shaking slightly, she walked over to it and cracked the door open. Her breath left her as she looked inside. The floor was stained with dried, dark brown-red splatters and the walls were smeared with the substance. It looked like someone had been tortured to death in the room. Sitting against the wall with wide, pale, glowing eyes was a yellow rabbit animatronic. It was cracked and chipped with torn material, loose wires, and half of an ear missing.

"W-who are you?" Clove whispered, taking a cautious step near it. Like the other animatronics, this one was much taller than her. But there was something about this one that gave off an eerie feeling. "Why are you all locked up…? Back here…?"

The pale and glowing eyes shifted and looked at something behind her. She whirled around and saw Mike standing in the doorway.

"I-I was…d-did you k-know about…w-what happened…?" She stammered.

He touched his finger to his mouth and shook his head at her, then took a step back and motioned for her to leave the hallway. Without meeting his gaze, she walked briskly out of the room and the hidden hallway and in a minute she heard Mike slide the door shut behind them.

Rex caught sight of Clove walked quickly towards the hallway, her face was pale and she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

"Hey Clove," He waved her over, then frowned as he saw Mike shoulder past him with a shadowed look. As Clove stopped in front of him, he threw several glances from her to Mike who left the building. "What just happened?"

"I…uh…I'll tell you later." Clove said.

"Clove, you're really starting to scare me."

**School is weird. Band nerds are weird. This chapter is weird. This whole story is weird. This chapter is really long jeez what's wrong with me. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Just a heads up/ reminder, I wrote this story before the fourth game was released. To be honest, I kind of thought game three would be the end of it. In this case, I'm not gonna redo my outline for this story to fit the new information given to me, because, well, that would kind of ruin what I've already laid out. However, I'll adjust some things in the future in some way that- you know what? Don't even worry about it. **

"Alright, everyone, come on." Vincent said, walking out of the closet with the ghost-children following him in single file order. He was heading towards the front door.

"Whoa, hang on, where are you going?" Freddy asked him from the stage.

"_We_ are going for a walk in the park," He said without throwing a glance behind him. "In case you wanted to join."

Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica exchanged looks. Chica stood up from her drum set and Bonnie put his guitar down and together they left the stage. Freddy shrugged, rolled his eyes, and followed them. Marionette pulled her feet off of the table and drew her cloak tighter around her and headed out with them.

"We're just…going, then?" Mike asked as Foxy hauled him to his feet.

"Guess so," Foxy shrugged, slinging his arm around his friend as they headed down the hallway. "Not much of a big deal anymore, really."

"Yeah…I guess you're right." Mike shivered in the night air as they left the building. "Gosh it's freezing out here."

"That's because it's nearly November." Vincent told him.

"Vincent, can we go trick or treating on Halloween?" Jess tugged on his arm.

He rubbed his chin. "Maybe not necessarily _trick_ _or_ _treating_…But we can scare the daylight out of a bunch of people."

"Okay!"

Marionette fell instep beside Vincent. "To be honest, I'm kind of looking forward to when it starts snowing. It kind of reminds me of when we used to run around on the lake when it was frozen- because we didn't have ice skates." She gave him a smile. "Remember?"

He grinned. "Yeah, and then we'd end up getting ice cream at some weird food place that stayed open crazy late." He laughed. "It'd be 28 degrees outside at four in the morning, so we'd eat ice cream."

Behind them, Freddy pushed his way in between Bonnie and Chica and slung an arm around each of them, giving a bit of a lazy smile.

"What's the matter, Fred-bear, cold getting to you too?" Bonnie asked with a sarcastic look and Chica laughed.

"You know what guys?" Freddy asked them. "This isn't so bad."

Mike looked around as they began to enter town. "You think people will notice all of us and get suspicious?" He asked nervously as they made a right at the town's main intersection. "I mean I know it's one in the morning but still…"

"Quit yer panickin'," Foxy rolled his eye. "What's the worst that can happen?"

"Well…a lot of things." Mike pulled his coat tighter around him and looked cautiously at the town buildings as they walked by.

"That's 'cause yer thinkin' too low." Foxy tilted his head upwards to look at the sky. The moon was a mere sliver of silver light in a glittering canvas of dark, open blues. "Ye've got to learn to look up every now and then."

"I guess so…" Mike said, his head tilted back to look at the midnight sky.

Jess tugged at his coat sleeve. "Did you know that the sun doesn't move? Earth is always spinning."

"Yeah, I knew that."

"It still feels like we don't move- especially when the night keeps changing. Sometimes there's more stars in the sky than other nights. I think it happens on accident. I think someone up there has a big box of stars and whenever they drop their box of stars, they all spill onto the sky." She smiled and gave a laugh as she looked at the sky. "It looks like they dropped their box tonight."

As they continued on their walk, things began to look more familiar.

"You're taking us to the park?" Mike asked Vincent.

"Yes," Vincent looked back and gave him a nod. "You could say that."

Mike frowned and exchanged a look with Foxy, who merely smiled at him.

Entering the park, Vincent lead them passed the play grounds and the picnic areas and past the tennis court and basketball court to a stretch of the park dotted with few oak trees, lamp posts, a single fountain, and benches that curved with the rolling land. Not far away was a little stream that fell neatly into the little lake where small fish swam. This section of the park was often where adults would come to read books or paint or admire scenery and couples would walk and wander whilst they talked with each other. Now, however, there was no one around.

"It's really nice here," Chica said, smiling and looking around. "I like it."

"You should see it when it's snowing." Marionette beamed.

"You should see it in the daylight." Vincent said, sitting on the edge of the fountain.

"So what, we're going to sneak out in the day time now?" Freddy frowned, standing across from him. But the idea didn't seem to faze Bonnie or Chica.

"Sounds good."

"I'm down."

Freddy shrugged. "Seems legit."

Foxy and Mike sat down at a bench across from the fountain. "That'll be funny." Mike chuckled. "One day the seven of us just walk through the park; no that's not queer at all. I'm sure no one will panic or call the police."

"We're robots what're they gonna do?" Freddy laughed.

"These dang animatronics keep coming to the park in the day time. _Stepping_ on the _grass_. _Sitting_ by the _fountain_. How _dare_ they." Bonnie mocked the attitude of a police officer.

Vincent shrugged. "If I were you guys, I'd do it. Especially on a Sunday or some day when the restaurant is closed just all of you parade down here with a picnic basket and blanket and set up right by the lake and just casually have lunch like normal people. See what happens."

"So what do you guys wanna do now?" Bonnie asked. "Now that we're at the park and all…"

"We could just sit around and have a feels circle," Marionette shrugged, sitting beside Vincent. "But I think we've had quite a few…indirect feels circles lately."

"Agreed." Freddy raised his eyebrows.

"At least the awkward tension is gone." Mike looked at Marionette and Vincent. "It used to be really tense and awkward around you two."

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah well, y'know...things happen."

"We could play a game," Chica suggested. "And the loser gets thrown into the lake."

"I'm down."

"Let's do it."

Freddy shrugged. "What game do you expect us to play? We left all the game boards back at the restaurant."

"Truth or dare." Bonnie ginned. "I'll go first, Mike truth or dare?"

"No, I hate that game." Vincent rolled his eyes. "It gets boring after a while."

"There was a book series called 'Truth or Dare'." Marionette said, tapping her finger tips together. "It was intense."

"We can play 'Never Have I Ever'." Chica suggested.

Bonnie grinned. "Let's do it. Please."

"I lose every time." Vincent said.

"Can we play?" Chris asked, floating over.

"No, because we're not playing that game. And even if we were: no. Because that game…is not for children."

"We played it once at the old place." Chica said, crossing her arms in a relaxed way. "But…Marionette wasn't with us then. She was out for one of her walks."

"Walks?" Mike echoed.

"Yeah, she used to go out after closing time sometimes and just take a walk through the woods." Chica shrugged.

"But she told me-ˮ

"Yeah, I missed a lot of inside jokes apparently." Marionette said with a little chuckle, rubbing the back of her head.

"Hey, we should play never have I ever again! This time we can play it with Marionette!" Chica smiled.

"I don't care." Bonnie shrugged.

"Ehha ha ha ha, whaaaat?" Marionette gave a strange laugh. "No way, I don't want to play that game!"

"Why not?" Bonnie grinned. "Got somethin' your _hiding_?"

"No," She said quickly. "At least…y'knkow…not with _these_ losers." She said, throwing her arm around Vincent and giving Mike a shove.

"Alright. That's fine. I can see when I'm not wanted." Vincent leaned back and stuck his head in the fountain water.

Mike looked at the lake, which glowed a light blue under the light of the moon and the stars. "I feel like I've been here before."

"It's the park. You…probably _have_ been here before." Bonnie said.

"No, no I mean…" He shrugged and gestured to the lake. "_That_ looks familiar. That scene; right there." He pointed to the fountain. "And that."

Vincent made a gurgling noise from beneath the water.

"Mike I don't know how many yellow rabbits you've seen swimming in the fountain," Freddy straightened his bowtie.

"No, I mean the…it's weird." Mike slumped his shoulders, giving up on trying. Foxy raised his eyebrows at him.

"That reminds me," Vincent said, sitting up and letting a stream of water pour out of his face. "Marionette, when did you get your 'vampire cloak' back?"

Marionette swished her cape and looked down at it. "Clove, Mike, and I went to the warehouse a few days ago and I found it and took it."

"No you didn't, you didn't take anything." Mike frowned.

"Yes I did, you just didn't see me."

Freddy shook his head, chuckling and then laughing. Bonnie and Chica exchanged a glance and then frowned.

"…What…what are you laughing at?"

"Oh, God," Freddy tipped back his hat to rub his head. "What are we _doing_? We're all just sitting here like this is oh so normal! Four animatronics, five ghosts, a dead murderer, an animatronic who's _supposed_ to be dead and _you_!" He gestured to Mike. "And we're just sitting here! Talking! In the middle of the park!"

Chica looked up at the sky. "Well we've all kind of been friends for a long time. We're just…missing a few people, that's all. Some things have changed but…we- us here- all kind of made it full circle. We're all still friends; we've just been through a lot and now we're picking up where we left off."

Bonnie followed her gaze. "That just about sums it up."

"Sure glad things worked out they way they did, eh?" Foxy said, looking up along with Mike and throwing his arm around his friend.

"I guess I should be pretty thankful you guys don't hold a grudge against me," Vincent said, throwing a glance at the ghost children before tilting his head back.

"I guess there's no fun in holding a grudge or being upset for a long time," Freddy said, crossing his arms and looking up. "Like you kids said…it gets tiring after a while."

"Mm…" Marionette stared a streetlamp standing near an oak tree at the top of a small hill. The tiny candle like flame flickered, making her shiver.

"Sky's really pretty tonight ey?" Mike asked her, his eyes reflecting the glowing canopy above.

"Yeah." She murmured, looking away.

For a moment, everyone was quiet. Even the kids quieted in their playing to look up at the sky.

"Alright let's go back." Vincent said, climbing off of the fountain and heading off out of the park. The others paused, exchanged glances with each other, and frowned after him.

"…That was it?"

"You just wanted to look at the stars?"

Vincent paused and rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. "Weeeeeeell, I _was_ gonna merge my soul with Marionette's and fight Moxie in the dirt clearing over there…but then Marionette got that look on her face and I knew she wasn't gonna deal with it today."

"What? What do you mean?" Mike glanced around. "Moxie can still…happen."

Freddy and Bonnie rolled their eyes.

Mike opened his eyes and yawned. His room was gray; the pale, milky, dreary light trickling through the blinds like silent, glowing streams, radiating a cool atmosphere. Even the things with the brightest color were somewhat dull and still looking. Spike was still asleep beside him, curled up and snoring loudly. The fan hummed softly above him, but the rest of the world was so quiet he could hear his watch ticking on the nightstand beside the bed.

_Weird_. He thought. Usually _Marionette is up by now, listening to the radio or watching TV or…something_. Curiously, Mike climbed out of bed and went out of his room. The rest of the house was more silent, and gray. Turning towards the living room, Mike saw Marionette standing in front of the window with her cloak wrapped around her shoulders, holding the clasp. Her expression was blank.

"Good morning," Mike started, unsure of how to address her; she was probably in one of her moods; sad-ish, kind of distant…weird.

"It is." Marionette responded, not looking at him.

"What time is it?" He asked. The overcast world wasn't giving either of them a sense of time.

"About 10:15, I think."

"Okay." He shifted awkwardly on his feet, his hands behind his back. "…You okay?"

"Yeah." She said. "Just thinking."

"Sleep okay?"

"Yeah."

He carefully walked over behind her, giving a good few feet of space between them. He could see her reflection in the window. Her eyes were blandly concentrating on the dreary world outside; the dark gray roads, the pale gray sky, the hundreds of shades painted on every house, every leaf, and every grass blade. Marionette then turned to Mike and looked him up and down. She let go of her clasp to reach up and rustle his hair near the back of his head. He gave her a confused look.

"It's weird. You were just a kid. Just a few days ago." She said, staring at his eyes. "And now it's been _twenty_ _years_."

He blinked, unsure of how to respond to her.

"I fell asleep…And I woke up…and _everything_ was different from what I knew." She rested her palm on his shoulder. "I bet you barely remember."

"I remember some things. Bits and pieces. Sometimes new things will come up." He gave a shrug.

She searched his expression. "What do you remember?"

"Of…what? The accident? The murder?"

"Of how things were before all of that."

"Oh."

Marionette looked at him intrigued, as if he was about to tell a grand and elaborate story. Mike scrolled through his mind back twenty years, right to the fading memories of his childhood.

"I remember everyone being a lot taller than me, and…I don't know. Things were a lot happier. Vincent wasn't crazy; he was pretty cool, and weird." He rubbed the back of his neck a chuckle. "It was a lot more musical too."

"Go on…" Marionette urged.

"Well there's another thing too, _you_ were a lot more cheerful also." He stopped and looked at her. Marionette's expression was still, but there was almost a sadness hidden in her eyes. He frowned slightly, wondering why she was giving him that look.

"You ever wish that you could just…relive it?" She asked.

He nodded slowly.

Through the gray clouds, a sliver of sunlight wove through the glass window and wrapped itself around the snow globe sitting neatly on the coffee table, making it glow.

Alright. Closing time again. She was left with the key, telling her boss that she'd lock up soon; there was just a few more things she'd like to um…clean up. Now, with no one else around in the slowly darkening restaurant, Clove felt a sudden sense of fear. But she shook her head and lifted her chin high…which wasn't saying much, she was only about 5'1.

Turning the key over and over in her fingers, she looked to the wall that had the secret door handle. She looked at the three animatronics on stage. They didn't move. She looked to the hall leading to Pirate Cove. There wasn't a sound. Taking a deep breath, she marched to the wall, running her hand along the paint and wall paper, looking for the little nick. Her fingers slipped and curled around something and she gave a tug, revealing the hidden hallway. The yawning darkness roared at her, sending chills up her spine.

Cautiously, she tread over to the left room and knocked lightly on the door. Then felt stupid and cracked it open, peering inside. There was the yellow animatronic, peering at her with pale glowing eyes. She opened the door all the way and stepped inside. It faintly smelled of rotting things and the dark splatter stains hadn't been cleaned. The very sight of them made her feel sick. _No, no…maybe it isn't…blood…_It couldn't be blood, there was just…too much of it. _Yeah, I mean…if someone died in here, there's no way there would be so much blood. And there would be a body. And a weapon. Unless that person was murdered…unless that person's body was hidden…unless that person's murder cleaned the weapon…_ Her thoughts drifted over to her last visit here, when Mike had silently shooed her out of the room. _No way…_ Her stomach churned sickly.

The animatronic in front of her looked around at the room, seeming to notice what was making Clove so scared. But it merely just stared at her again, sitting back against the wall.

"Did someone _die_ in here?" She asked, her voice trembling more than she thought it would.

The yellow animatronic gave a shrug, as if it didn't really know how to answer her question.

She gasped. "You can understand me?"

It nodded.

"Can you talk?"

It squinted at her.

"Okay then," Carefully, she found a spot on the floor that wasn't covered in blood and sat down cross-legged in front of the robot. Now she felt even smaller. She looked the animatronic up and down. It was old, chipped, scratched, tattered…a wonder how it was even on. She frowned. Why _was_ it on? And why was it shut up in here? "Why are you locked up?"

It shrugged.

"How long have you been active here?"

It held up one finger.

"A day? A week? A month?"

It pointed at her.

"One month?"

It squinted and tilted its hand from side to side _so-so._

"Sort of?"

It nodded.

She leaned forward. "When did you get here? Or have you always been here?"

It shrugged.

"Who else knows about this hallway and these rooms?"

It held up a finger.

"Just one person?"

It nodded.

"Boss?"

It shook it's head.

"Mike?"

It nodded.

Clove hugged herself uncertainly. It looks like to get anything interesting out of this robot, she'd need to play a few rounds of twenty questions.

"So…what happened here?"

_I don't' know._

"Something bad?"

_Sort of._

"Did someone die?"

_…Sort of._

"Were they murdered?"

_No_.

"What happened?"

The animatronic held up its hands and shook its head, squinting.

"Sorry…" She ran a hand through her hair. "I don't really remember seeing you when I was a kid. That means you must be new…but you look so worn and old…"

It rolled its eyes.

Clove gave a nervous chuckle and checked her watch. "J-jeez, I should probably go." She climbed off of the ground and stared at the animatronic. Hesitantly, she reached out and scratched its somewhat soft fur in between its ear and a half. Then she turned and left the room, closing off the doorway to the hidden hallway, and hurried out of the building.

**Sorry, this chapter was pretty stupid and boring and I know it's been a while so this is doubly disappointing, but I've been under a lot of stress lately and haven't been able to write. **


	18. Chapter 18

**So I read over my plan and I still don't remember half of the things I was going to do with this. Mostly because I abbreviated all of the ideas I had in the plan and I can't remember what the abbreviations mean or what kind of weird big ideas they had behind them. That and my life is falling apart. It's great. **

***line break**

"What was all that about?"

"Jessica! You frightened me." Vincent started, turning to the little ghost.

"I don't go by Jessica anymore, remember?" She wrung out her pale, stringy hair. "I'm just Jess, like Lauren is Laura, and Christopher is Chris, and Jonathan is John…actually, I think Paul is the only one of us who didn't shorten his name. Let's call him Eric."

"Uhh…"

Jess blinked in recollection. "Oh yeah; what was that girl doing here? Are you cheating on your girlfriend in Italy?"

Vincent frowned. "Never have we ever agreed that she was my girlfriend." He scratched his head. "I don't know what that was, that's the second time she's come here…Starting to get worried she'll tell the manager or something…"

"She's pretty, you should ask her out." Laura said from his right.

"What is it with you five and trying to get me to settle down?" Vincent muttered, resting his chin in his palm.

"But she _likes_ you!"

"Yeah! Didn't you see how she kept staring at you?" Jess added, grinning.

"If she's attracted to _this_," Vincent gestured to the decaying, yellow, rabbit animatronic suit. "She's got a pretty creepy fetish."

"Well why else would she come back here again?" Laura asked, sticking her hands on her hips.

"That's the mystery that concerns me…"

"Should we tell Freddy and the others?"

"No! I mean…c'mon, she'll probably never come back after today. I won't even talk to her, what else can she do with me?"

*line break*

"R-Rex?" Clove stammered shyly.

"What?" Said the rough reply on the other end of the line.

"It's me, Clove."

"Why."

"I want to talk to you about something."

"No, I mean why are you calling me, this is the 21st century, just text me I don't have time for phone calls."

"Because it's a lot to explain!"

"Oh _Jesus_, you're not still going on one of Janice's 'Mike conspiracy theories' are you? Look, I get it you have a crush on him, but this is getting weird."

Clove's face turned bright red, though Rex couldn't see. "I-I-I didn't! When did I ever say!" she shook her head. "No, no, it's not about _him_! Listen…I found something in the restaurant, something hidden. And I mean _really_ hidden, l-like no one's supposed to know about it. H-he kind of told me that I wasn't supposed to know about it."

"What'd you find? And who told you not to find it?"

"A robot, another animatronic. It's a big yellow rabbit, but it's old and chipped and cracked…but it's up and working, and get this; _it understands me_!"

"Go talk to Janice, you're being stupid."

"I'm not kidding, Rex!"

"Okay, so now either you're lying, or you are WAY too paranoid about things and need to see a doctor. Seriously. What kind of drugs are you taking? Oh, yeah, and you really should look up from your phone every now and then, you're not even texting me."

Clove looked up. Rex was standing in front of her at the gas station on the three way intersection hidden away from most of the town. He hung up his cell phone and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

"Oops…" She hung up her phone and shoved it sheepishly in her pocket. Walking beside him past the gas station. "But it's not the robot that's scary…it's the room…it's covered in…something. It looks like someone took water balloons filled with black ink and threw them everywhere…but it _smells_ awful."

Rex rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever, Clove, quit being stupid. You're taking things WAY too far, like it's some plot. You know, you're starting to sound a lot like Janice and it's starting to piss me off." He looked up at the sun and gave it a glare. "So this is the way to this warehouse you're telling me about?"

"Yeah, since you parked at the gas station it's less of a walk." Clove told him. "And I'm not overreacting. That robot told me someone _died_ in that room."

"It spoke to you?" Rex frowned at her.

"Not exactly…" Clove unfolded her arms and opened the door to the warehouse. Warm golden light filtered in through the dirty, grime-stained windows.

"Yeah, you're bat-shit crazy, we're not friends anymore." Rex told her, walking inside and wrinkling his nose at the smell of old things. But as his eyes adjusted to the light, he suddenly realized how many free things were there in front of him. "I can just take whatever I want?" Rex asked, slowly grinning.

"Go ahead."

"Cool." He headed down an aisle. "Whoa. _That's_ trippy."

"Huh?" Clove followed his gaze and stared down at a box with the words 'see you soon' written on it in cursive writing. She shivered. "That's weird…it wasn't like this the last time I saw it."

"What do you mean?"

"Last time it said 'Good Morning', and it was closed." She picked up the box and tipped and turned it, but there was no sign of the previous phrase anywhere on it.

_Tp…Tp…Tp…Tp…_

"Hello?" She called out. "Is someone else in here?"  
Rex took the box from her and set it down, listening as the footsteps got louder and louder. He briskly walked to the end of the aisle and looked around, but there was no one in sight.

"Hello?"

There was no response except for the steady tapping of someone's footsteps.

"Okay, that's really-

"Ah! L-look out!" Clove pointed.

Rex whirled around, but there was nothing there. He pointed at her with a glower. "You shut up! I am SICK of your damn paranoia!"

"N-n-no, there was…it looked like someone was…"

They both stopped and stared at the box in the middle of the aisle. There was something inside, radiating a pulsating light blue light.

"That's trippy. I'm out." Rex said.

"Uh huh."

And with the mysterious footsteps still in their ears, they fled.

*line break

Marionette looked at the watch on Mike's wrist and narrowed her eyes. "Y'know, we probably could've gotten here sooner if we'd taken the car."

Mike clenched his fists. "No. We're not talking about this anymore today. Or tomorrow. Or ever."

"Oh no, Mike, we're close to the _road_!" Marionette waved her hands in false fear. "I sure hope a CAR doesn't come by!"

His face turned bright red. "Shut up!"

As they rounded the corner at the town's main intersection, they ran into three teenagers wearing sweatshirts featuring three trumpets in the form of a triangle. Marionette and Mike cringed.

"Whoa, hey chill dudes, sorry." Said one of them, a boy, he frowned at Marionette. "I thought Halloween was like…a few months ago?"

"Yeah, I also thought security guards were supposed to be big beefy guys." Another of the trio, a girl, glanced up from her cell phone. She did a double take, and frowned slowly. "Hang on…"

As realization dawned on their faces, Mike and Marionette shoved past the trio and sprinted down the sidewalk as fast as they could, the three kids yelling after them. They kept running and didn't stop until they reached the parking lot of the restaurant.

"Did they…follow us?" Mike panted.

"No," Marionette said, looking back. "Dear God…That was terrifying."

"Oh, there you are," Vincent poked his head through the front doors. "Guys what are you doing? The new season of Chanteys is almost on- what happened to you two?"

"We ran into the marching band kids." Marionette explained.

"THEY'RE ONTO USE! THEY KNOW WE STOPE THEIR DRUM! THEY'RE GONNA BURN US ALIVE AND DO A SATANIC RITUAL DANCE!" Mike panicked.

"No, no, no," Vincent shook his head. "They'll only do that if they catch us." When Marionette gave him a wide eyed look, he frowned and rubbed his chin. "Oh, wait, no I'm thinking of that other band…yeah…that's right…bad memories from that place. Anyway, Chanteys, did you bring the extra cinnamon rolls?"

Marionette and Mike exchanged a look. "No."

"Honestly, I'm not sure I really want to watch the new season," Marionette frowned. "I cried my eyes out last episode."

"Yeah, that was really sad." Mike added.

Vincent rolled his eyes and lead them into the building with a wave of his chipped hand. "Oh c'mon guys! It's Chanteys; it's a comedy! Plus I'm dying to see what happens to Sebastian; he got stabbed but I don't think he actually died."

"It still made me cry." Marionette folded her arms. "I actually think-

"Shh," Vincent held up a finger to his muzzle as they neared the end of the hallway. As they entered the main room, they saw a semi circled of chairs around the stage. As Mike and Marionette got closer, they saw the five ghost kids fast asleep against the stage.

"Why the chairs?" Marionette whispered.

"Ghosts dream in memories. When you get too close to a sleeping ghost, you're sucked into their memory until they wake up." Vincent murmured, leading them towards the manager's office. "I don't want you intruding on their slumber; they might have a nightmare…" he trailed off and closed the door behind them. The other four animatronics were sitting on a couch in the manager's office.

"Hey." Bonnie raised a paw. "You ready for Chanteys?"

"I made cinnamon rolls this time!" Chica grinned, gesturing to a plate of burnt cinnamon rolls on the manager's desk.

"Where did you get the couch?" Mike asked as Marionette sat on the arm of the couch and Vincent pulled up the manager's rolling chair beside her.

"I'm…borrowing it from a friend." Vincent said slowly, rubbing his chin as Foxy pulled Mike into his lap. Mike shot him a look and rolled his eyes with a shrug. "In other words I stole it for a few days. I'm probably gonna give it back tomorrow."

"But wait where are you planning on keeping-

"Guys, can we please just get on with Chanteys?" Marionette asked. "Like Vincent said, I'm still anxious about the whole 'Sebastian dying' thing."

"UGGHHHH!" The four other animatronics groaned.

"Seriously?!" Chica glared at her.

Bonnie grinned. "It's ruined."

"We're still an episode behind you!" Freddy threw out his arms.

"Oh…sorry." Marionette sank in her half-seat.

The four animatronics glowered at her, then looked at each other in a long pause of silence.

"You know what I really should be practicing or something, we stole that snare for a reason." Chica said, getting up hastily.

"Yeah let me read over that sheet music again." Freddy followed her.

"Nonspecific excuse." Bonnie stood up and left.

"Way to go, Mary-girl." Vincent slumped in his seat.

"Don't call me that." She glowered at him and folded her arms. "So we're doing season two another day, I'm guessing?"

"Guess so." Foxy shrugged, getting up and stretching with a wide yawn. As the others stood to exit the room, he held the door for them and followed them out. The ghost children were stirring awake from their slumber, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

"Hey kids," Vincent said. "Did you have any bad memories when you were sleeping?"

"Not really." Chris said absentmindedly.

"I had a memory of a really big black dog." Laura said.

Mike frowned. "…Who's that?"

"Who's who?" Vincent asked, looking around the room.

"HEY!" Foxy pointed towards the end of the hallway, where a shadowy, hooded figure was sneaking out the door.

"You had one job, Mike." Bonnie said.

"Whoa there's a guy there!" Paul soared forward, gently pushing Foxy-who was already ready to sprint- into Mike and floating right into the two. "Oops…"

Mike, not missing a beat, ran down the hallway. The hooded figure turned from the glass and raced away from the building, Mike chasing after him.

"WORST SECURITY GUARD EVER!" Bonnie yelled. He exchanged a grin with Chica and ran after them.

"Wait, sto-NO!" Freddy yelled, quickly pursuing them. Marionette and Vincent shrugged and hurried to join.

"Uh oh…" Chica told Bonnie as she suddenly realized that the person chasing the shady stranger wasn't _exactly_ who they had first thought it was.

Bonnie grinned and raised his eyebrows. "Well this'll make things more interesting!"

Up far ahead of them, Rex ran for his life with his coat hood up. Okay, maybe Clove was right. Maybe weird things did happen at the restaurant overnight. He threw a glance behind him at his pursuer and gasped. A massive man with dark red hair and a snarling expression was hot on his trail, chasing him like a monster.

*line break*

Meanwhile, exhausted from hours of driving across the country, one car sat parked in the gas station with a young woman asleep in the passenger seat and a little girl yawning in the back seat. While her father was inside buying snacks, she looked out the window and saw a man run up to the intersection and take a right. Another, much larger and stronger looking man quickly chased him with a growl-like yell. The little girl gasped and glued herself to the window glass. She watched as a big blue rabbit and a yellow chicken appeared and followed the trail of the other two men, laughing loudly. Then, as they disappeared, a big ugly yellow rabbit and a strange hooded person appeared and stopped at the intersection, the rabbit doubled over and panted heavily. The two looked up at the traffic light as it changed quickly from yellow to red.

"HA!" The rabbit pointed at the strange hooded person. "And YOU wanted to take the car!"

"We don't have time for this! Foxy's body is still at the restaurant, what are we gonna do about that?! We have to go back and get it!" The strange person with him said

"Wait, I have an idea," The yellow rabbit fell over on the ground limply. The cloaked person leaned on their hip and folded their arms, looking at their wrist and tapping their foot impatiently. After a good long minute, a big red fox in an eye patch ran up.

"Y'know it's nice to be strong for a change." It said. It fell over and the yellow rabbit stood up again, picking up the fox and throwing it over his shoulder. "Come on!" Together, the two ran off, following the rest of the party.

"Mama! Mama!" The little girl shoved her mother awake. "Mama! There's a big yellow bunny outside!"

"That's nice, sweetie…" Her mother sighed.

*line break*

"GET BACK HERE YOU THEIF!" Cried the monstrous person on Rex's tail. He turned sharply into the park and disappeared into the night. His pursuer would have been hot on his trail if it weren't for the sudden mass of people lurking in the open park space that caught his attention, making him skid to a halt at the park's entrance. The marching band was practicing in the wide open space the park provided, and, one might note, in the back of the band, where the drummers stood, there was one young man who was rather…drum-less.

"BAND KIDS!" Foxy yelled, falling off of Vincent's shoulder.

"Whoa!" Vincent turned around in surprise.

"Nice going genius, just throw him anywhere, why don't you?" Marionette shoved him with a sarcastic look.

He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Wait a minute…" Marionette pointed at Foxy. "If _you're here_…where's Mike?"

"Hey, look, there he is," Bonnie elbowed Chica and pointed to Mike, who was slumped up against the elegant stone park entrance and breathing heavily.

"He doesn't look so good…" Chica squinted and shook her head. Bonnie gave her a shrug and followed her.

"Why'd you quit chasing him? You chickened out?" Bonnie gave a chuckle and Chica elbowed him, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah…they're…everywhere…" Mike panted.

"Who is?"

"Eek! Bonnie!" Chica dropped to her knees, taking Bonnie with her and hiding.

"What?!" He glared at her.

"Band kids!" She hissed, pointing.

"Dang it." He looked back at Mike. "Well, did you see who it was?'

"Uh-uh," Mike shook his head. "I didn't get a good look at them."

"Move," Foxy shoved Bonnie and Chica out of the way and hauled Mike to his feet. "Sorry, Mikey, y'alright? Ye don't look so good, maybe y'should sit down." He threw his friend over his shoulder.

"Oh God…I don't feel so good…" Mike moaned. "I feel sick."

Bonnie took a good few steps away from him as Foxy carried him back in the direction of the restaurant. "If you puke on me, I'm gonna have a cow."

"H-hey, stop! I-I-I can't see!"

"I think he's serious." Chica said urgently, tugging at Foxy's other arm.

He set Mike down with a concerned look on his face. They were at the intersection by the gas station, Vincent and Marionette were arguing by the traffic light, and the one car that had been seated at the gas station was gone.

"What's wrong, lad?"

"I-I can't see!" Mike stammered, panicking.

"Whadda ya mean?" A look of much deeper concern drained the color of Foxy's face. "Look at me."

Mike's head tilted toward the sound of Foxy's voice, but his eyes seemed to be blankly staring something beyond him.

Bonnie and Chica exchanged a look, and even Marionette and Vincent stopped arguing.

"What's going on?" Vincent called.

"…Says he can't see…" Foxy said, looking more and more fearful.

"Let me take a look." Vincent gently pushed him out of the way and looked into Mike's blankly staring eyes. From Mike's jacket he grabbed his flashlight, and gave it and unimpressed look. "It's not really one a doctor would use, but it'll work." Still though, he held the flashlight out at a bit of a distance before clicking it on and shining it into each of Mike's eyes. Much to his surprise, he was completely unresponsive to the light.

"…I don't understand." Vincent shook his head and lowered the flashlight.

"What? What happened? Can you fix it?" Foxy asked, his eye round.

Vincent frowned at Mike, tapping his shoulder. "How did this happen?"

"I-I-I don't know, I was sitting by the park and all of a s-sudden I couldn't see."

Vincent looked up with a very confused look. "This makes zero sense!"

"What is it?" Chica asked uneasily.

Vincent shook his head. "He's blind as a bat." At the others' astonished and dismayed looks, Vincent gave a big shrug. "I don't know how!"

Mike gave a squeak and started to panic. Marionette grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake. "Does it hurt, what do you see?"

"NOTHING!" He shrieked.

"I think the term 'blind' kind of y'know, says it all." Bonnie said. Chica elbowed him harder.

"Bonnie, this is serious!" She told him. "Mike could never see again!"

"_What_?!" Mike choked in a high voice.

"Now, now, it's nothing to worry about," Vincent patted his shoulder. "There are tons of blind people in the world, don't be ashamed of it."

"I'm not _ashamed_!"

Foxy shoved Vincent out of the way and slipped an arm around his friend's shoulders. "C'mon Mikey, s'pose it's only temporary, eh?" he encouraged, using his better hand to help guide Mike.

"It could be," Vincent shrugged, a pair of ghost rollerblades appeared on the bottoms of his feet as he went ahead of them to join Marionette. "Give it some time."

"Vincent…please no." Marionette said with one glance at his feet.

"Jeez, that's gotta be scary, just to randomly lose sight like that. I'd freak out too." Chica said, following them.

"I wouldn't be. I'm not scared of anything." Bonnie chuckled. Chica elbowed him again.

"And here we go again! We're all perfectly okay with this! We're not worried about what BOSS might think or do if Mike just shows up to work COMPLETELY BLIND FOR NO REASON AT ALL!" Freddy threw up his arms in distress.

"Boss doesn't really see Mike…so…he won't have to know." Chica gave a little shrug.

"Yeah, whatever, what about his friends, huh? How is that gonna fly over, huh? 'Oh hey Mike, what's with the dog?' 'Oh, yeah, you know what? I'm blind. Yeah I was at work the other night and pop! There goes my vision!"

"I don't sound like _that_!" Mike whined from ahead of them.

"I don't sound like _that_!" Bonnie mimicked, putting extra emphasis on the mocking tone and adding a lisp.

Mike let out a half moaning-half whining sound and hid his face in Foxy's shoulder in embarrassed defeat. Foxy shot a scowl towards Bonnie, who scrunched up his face at him.

Chica elbowed him. "Bonnie! Stop being terrible!"

"Oh for the love of…_fine_." He rolled his eyes and grumbled.

"Okay, uh, guys?" Freddy picked up his pace, trying to get his friends' attention. "This is kind of a big deal here!"

"Well I mean…sort of, yeah…" Vincent said. "But it's not like he lives alone. He's got Marionette to help him around the house."

Marionette then wrinkled her upper lip. "Oh yeah…Sure."

"Why does the gravity of the situation always fall on me?" Freddy groaned.

*line break*

"Now do you believe me?" Clove asked, folding her arms as Rex walked up to her, still panting.

"Okay, yeah, no, that wasn't even _Mike_ back there." He jerked his thumb back the way he had come.

"Oh is that so?" Clove raised an eyebrow, trying to keep her teeth from chattering so that she looked more intimidating. "Then who was it? Maybe you're just being paranoid."

Rex glowered at her. "Okay, yeah, shut up, I get it now, no need to rub it in. And you know what? Maybe Mike wasn't at work today? What if that was some random guy filling in for him?" He prompted.

"Okay, we'll just ask him about it, then," Clove shrugged. "He usually stops by just to say hello during the day. We can ask him then." Rex gave her a look. "Oh come on, I know you're just as curious as I am about all of this."

"No, I'm not curious. I don't care." Rex said. "Uncovering mysteries and all of that through great journey and all that stuff? Yeah, no. I like my answers straight up and mystery free."

*line break*

"Careful, watch your step now…" Marionette said, helping Mike up the steps of the front porch. "Give me your keys." When he handed her the keys from his front pocket, she unlocked the door and opened it. Spike wagged his tail as they entered the house and rolled onto his back.

Rather carelessly, Mike tossed his coat towards the direction of his recliner, but it missed miserably. Marionette sensed his negativity and patted his shoulder. "You wanna sleep in the recliner tonight?"

"No." He brushed her hand off of his shoulder and took a few steps towards the direction of his room.

"Oh, okay...you want some help?"

"No." He grumbled, stumbling and bumping into the wall a few times. He felt along the hallway wall until his hand clasped his bedroom door and knob, and went inside. A muffled thud followed him closing the door.

Marionette sighed and fell back into his recliner. "Boy I hope Foxy was right and this is all just temporary." Spike blinked at her, half asleep.

**Almost time to wrap this story up. Earlier in the year I thought of having like a sequel to this, but with all of this new information about the original story being given to me, that's probably not gonna happen. Also, it's the New Year and I should probably focus on getting my life in order, like WPD, she's got her ducks in a row. But with that being said, happy 2016 everyone! Hopefully this new tomorrow will be just a bit brighter than the shadows from yesterday! That was cheesy enough to be on a poster, yeah?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Oh boy, I hate that feeling when Christmas ends and you have to go back to your life falling apart, yeah? I felt like I had something to say in this author's note but I forgot about it so it must've been not important at all.**

Marionette rubbed her head, which was pounding. "Oh, God, where am I?" She then opened her eyes and realized she was swaying back and forth. Empty or leaking bottles of rum, whisky, gin, and mostly beer were scattered around her, and she held a half-full bottle in each hand. "What?!" She sat up in surprised and looked around.

She was sitting in a dinghy in the middle of an ocean on a bright and sunny day. Well…bright and sunny…that was a strange way to put it. The sky was a bright blue, like normal, and the sun was up shining big and proud in the middle of the sky, like normal. But so was the moon. It was circling the sun and spinning in circles with a rainbow tied around it like a bow.

A little ways away from her, Mike was standing on a large, overturned and floating wooden bucket, dressed in a handsome suit and tie and playing a very complex trumpet solo. About five feet away from him, Bonnie was dressed the same way and playing the piano accompaniment to the solo on a tiny floating stage. Marionette looked over the edge of the dinghy and through the tropical water saw dozens of goldfish swimming around freely in the waves.

"What?!"

Just then the water beside her rippled violently. A giant goldfish burst through the water and breached like a whale.

"WHAT?!"

Her boat rocked back and forth as a large wave of warm salty water rained down on her and her dinghy, soaking her. As the goldfish sank back into the sea, Marionette wiped her eyes and gawked at Mike and Bonnie, who were stilling playing music without a drop of water on them.

"What is happening to my life?!" Marionette yelled, throwing her two half-full beer bottles in random directions. Snatching an oar from the bottom of the dinghy, she dipped it in the water and began rowing, heading for the direction of a tropical island.

By the time she reached the shore, she was incredibly tired and could still hear Mike's trumpet solo. She climbed out of the dinghy and pulled it up on the white sand. She fell back on the shore breathing heavily, the water tickled her feet.

"May I take your belt, madam?"

"My what?" Marionette stood up and turned around. There stood a very handsome young man with pale blonde hair and dark, sea colored eyes with a pair of glasses to hide them. He stood at her side with an arm out like a fancy butler.

"Your belt, madam." He said with a smile.

"Huh?" Marionette looked down. Hanging loosely around her hips was a black and white checker colored belt. "Oh this stupid belt!" She unbuckled it and handed it to the young man. "Keep it! Jeremy wore it to work once he looked like the stupidest thing I ever seen!" she marched up the shore with a great effort, the warm white sand hugging her ankles and pleading her not to go.

"Sugar where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Hm?" Marionette looked up. Hanging upside down from the weak leaf of a palm tree was a little aquamarine armadillo with big sparkly blue and green butterfly wings. It had a long, slender striped tail that hooked strongly around the leaf and round, but kind eyes.

"You're marching up that island in such a hurry, you barely gave that fine young man any lovin'! Where are you off to, sugar plum? Someone you're looking for?"

"Huh? Oh…sorry?" Marionette threw a glance towards the young man at the shore who still smiled and held the belt she gave him. "I'm…not really trying to get anywhere. There's really no one that I'm looking for."

"Is that so, sugar?" The armadillo tilted her head and gave her sparkly wings a little shake. "Well then why are you in such a hurry?"

Marionette looked around. "I…don't know." She shrugged.

"You know, sugar, sometimes we do things we don't really know we do. And sometimes, those things are the things most important about us."

"Huh?"

"Sugar, have you ever noticed how _antsy_ you are?" The armadillo asked her. "Always talking on and on about something or hurrying up on your way…" Its tail loosened grip around the leaf it was on so that its face leaned down to hers. "Are you trying to find something that's already gone?"

Marionette bit her lower lip.

"Or are you trying to protect something that you've just found?"

"What's that supposed to mean…?" Marionette trailed off and looked around. The trumpet solo had suddenly stopped. A powerful wind blew through and rustled the leaves of the palm trees. Slowly, their bright green soft leaves grew smaller and more plentiful, stretching down and growing along branches in little tiny needles. The white sand lifted up and speckled the trees as white snow, and before she knew it, Marionette was standing in a snow-covered pine forest. She could smell smoke in the distance.

"What's that? What's that smell? I can't be around smoke, smoke is bad for me!" Marionette muttered staring at the armadillo.

"I need your help."

"Huh?!"

"I need your help!"

"I don't understand!"

"I CAN'T SEE!"

* * *

Marionette opened her eyes with a start and fell off of the couch. Despite the actual temperature outside, the morning sunlight snuck through the window and kissed her forehead. She groaned. Spike looked down at her from the couch, his big brown eyes filled with sleep. _What is happening with my life?_

"Hey, are you awake?!" A voice called from the bedroom. "M-Marionette? Are you up? Is it even morning?!"

"Hang on, little man, I'm coming!" She called to him, pushing herself off of the floor and walking into his bedroom. Mike was sitting up on his bed still in his uniform. When he heard her come in, he looked in the direction of the door, but it was obvious he couldn't tell where she was.

"I'm not little." He said.

Marionette sighed, but tilted her head in slight confusion. "Nice pajamas." She said, walking over to him.

He frowned, still looking in the direction of the door. "I'm kind of going through something right now, it's hard for me to cope with."

"What do you need me to help you with?" Marionette asked. He jumped at the sound of her voice. "I'm not helping you get dressed if that's what you're asking me."

"No, no, no! I can do that myself!" He rolled his eyes. "Hopefully…" He groaned. "Can you help me walk around? I don't have a cane, and Spike isn't exactly what you'd call a guide dog.

Marionette patted his shoulder. "Alright. But how should I help you? You can't exactly lean on me like you did with Foxy, it'll look suspicious. Especially in my cloak."

"You're right…" He rubbed his forehead. "Well, good thing you don't have a boyfriend, right?" He gave a little laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

* * *

"No, I guess this isn't exactly suspicious…But it is pretty awkward." Marionette said, holding Mike's hand and leading him into the park whilst clutching the leash to Spike in the other hand. The Doberman was pulling at his leash with all his might, eager to chase a Frisbee or a ball and even more eager to meet all of the new 'friends' he was seeing before him. The park was alive with mostly parents coming to take their children out to play. A few people were jogging and, past the play equipment, a few couples and artists were lingering in the more quiet section of the park by the lake.

"Where are we?" Mike asked her, turning his head in random directions.

"Guess." Marionette said through gritted teeth, glowering at the dog, who had no intention of paying any sort of attention to her.

"I'm really not in the guessing mood." Mike told her.

"We're in the park." She tugged at his hand. "Comeon, pick up the pace."

"I'm working on it!" He countered. "I'm tired okay? I didn't exactly have a good night's rest."

"Me neither." Marionette said, leading him past all of the playing kids and teenagers, most of which were staring at them and muttering to each other. "We need to get you a pair of sunglasses, I think it's starting to look obvious to people that you can't see."

He lowered his head. "Or they just think you look creepy in that cloak of yours…you had a weird dream last night?"

"Weird is an understatement." Marionette rolled her eyes and pulled her black cloak tighter around her. A cold breeze swam through and made her shiver.

"That so? Tell me about it."

"Well…There was a big goldfish…and you were there…Oh, y'know that super hot guy from Chanteys; Sebastian? He was there too."

Mike cut her off with a wave of his hand. "No more. You watch too much _Chanteys_."

"Hey pal, I _like_ Chanteys." She paused near a bench as she saw a familiar figure standing by the lake leaning against a tree. When the person caught sight of Marionette and Mike, they smiled and started walking over. "Rats, here comes trouble…"

"Hm?" Mike asked, turning his head.

"Hey there Mary." Clove said, approaching them. "Can I talk to your uncle for a minute?"

Marionette pulled her hood tighter over her face. "Actually, we're kind of in the middle of something."

"…Who…?" Mike muttered to Marionette, trying to be discreet, noticing that she was conversing with someone. He blindly took a few steps away, excluding himself in case the person had wanted to talk to him. _The last thing I need is someone I know coming up and talking to me._

"Is that so?" Clove pulled her hands from behind her back and revealed a tattered, bright green tennis ball with a smirk.

Marionette gritted her teeth. "You. Wouldn't. Dare." She muttered.

Clove patted Spike's head. The dog was staring at the ball with big brown eyes. She moved her hand left and right and his gaze followed it. She then reeled back her arm and sent the ball hurling into the lake.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Marionette shrieked as she went flying with Spike after the ball and plunged into the icy lake water.

"What was that?" Mike asked, jerking his head in the direction of where he'd last heard Marionette's voice.

"Oh, Spike just went for a swim and...M-Mary, I guess Mary wanted to swim too, I guess." Clove lied shyly as she smiled and approached him, but frowned slightly as she realized his eyes were staring at something rather far off.

"Oh yeah…she does that." Mike said, not as good of a quick liar as Marionette. "So, uh…what can I do for you?"

"Just wondering how you've been, that's all." Clove said, rubbing the back of her neck. "How's work?"

"…It's work." He shrugged, feeling suddenly hot and nervous. _Who the heck is this? I know I've heard that voice before… And why the hell is Marionette going for a swim at this time of the year?_

Clove gave a little laugh. "So, pretty boring? You know, I hear you're a pretty special night guard."

Mike chuckled nervously, realizing it must be one of the daytime workers from the restaurant. "Oh yeah?" He then frowned slightly. "…Why?"

"I hear there's only been two other guards who stuck with this job as long as you did…and they both mysteriously disappeared."

"Oh did they?" Mike swallowed. "How about that?"

"So …what's it like, hm? Being all alone at night for six hours?"

"Boring."

Her tone changed, as if she was slightly frustrated. "Well that sucks…Anyway, I'd better go, I've got to get to work soon."

"Okay, you do that." Mike gave her a little wave in what he hoped was the right direction as he heard her walk away. He turned his head left to right. Not hearing any sign of Marionette or his dog, he hung his head and continued to stand in place without any sense of direction.

Marionette hiked up the shore of the lake, dripping wet with Spike, who was parading around on his leash with the tennis ball clamped tightly in his mouth. Though her teeth were chattering, Marionette was hot with anger. As Clove walked by her, she pulled her sopping cloak tighter around her head.

"F-for the r-record, _Clove_, he's blind as a b-bat." She hissed.

Clove frowned slightly. "Who's what?"

"Mike's blind. He can't s-see anything." Marionette muttered again, heading towards Mike.

Suddenly intrigued, Clove followed alongside her. "Is that why his eyes are kind of pale?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes."

"When did that happen?"

"I d-don't know, he just woke up this m-morning and he couldn't see anything." Marionette lied under her breath as she approached Mike, shivering as another cold wind came through. Even the poor dog was starting to shiver.

Clove frowned at Mike and looked him over. She waved her hand in front of his face, but he didn't look up or acknowledge her presence in any way.

"See?" Marionette told her.

"Hm?" Mike lifted his head, but didn't look in any general direction.

Clove looked from Marionette to Mike and her face grew red. With a nervous look in her eye, she threw her arms around Mike's neck and gave him a big kiss. Marionette and exchanged a look with the dog. Her face a bright rose red, Clove pulled her arms in to her sides, gave Marionette an awkward wave, and walked away very quickly.

Mike stood still with his eyes wide.

"So that just happened." Marionette said.

"Did you just kiss me?"

"That wasn't _me_, dummy!"

"Oh alright…so uh…who uh… who was that?"

* * *

Rex leaned against the wall in Pirate Cove uncomfortably. It'd been a few days since boss had put in that new regulation that kept Foxy shut up from the rest of the building and already it was proving ineffective. About fifteen minutes ago some kid had come running into the room looking for trouble, and now Rex was put in charge of keeping kids out of it.

"Here," Macy, another of the employees said, walking down the hall and handing him a soda.

"Thanks." He said, taking a big gulp. "Y'know, boss is really starting to confuse me. Why don't we just put a _door _here to keep kids out of the hallway?"

"Then there wouldn't be a point of even having the hallway to begin with," She said. "Or keeping the robot."

"Why do we even _keep_ him?" Rex threw out his arms and gestured to the big animatronic behind the tattered violet curtains. "There is literally no point in having it here. I mean sure, most of the parents don't have a problem with him, but there's always gonna be that one person who's like 'rah! The Bite of '87! Rah!' and we're gonna have to keep it back here for a while."

"You know, I read that this thing wasn't even _active_ during the Bite of '87." Macy gestured to the robot and raised her eyebrows. "It was kept in this old parts and service closet."

"Okay, yeah, no offense," He raised his hands. "I really don't care right now." He nodded. "Like, that's cool that you read up about the job, but I don't care."

Macy rolled her eyes in irritation and left. She hadn't been gone long when Clove ran down the hallway and pressed herself against the opposite wall, running her hands through her hair.

"Hello." Rex said in a friendly tone, despite the careless, dull expression on his face. He frowned. "You look redder and more awkward than usual, what were you doing, talking to Mike?"

"Uh…sort of?" Clove shrugged and gave him a sheepish look. She sank to the ground and hugged her knees slightly.

Rex rolled his eyes and gave a groan.

"What?"

He rolled his hand and raised his eyebrows. "Elaborate? You were _sort_ _of_ talking to Mike? You can't just come in here looking super stressed out and exhausted and be like 'Hi.' That's like me walking in here with my arm cut off and a bullet in my shoulder and leaning against the wall like 'Oh hi, I didn't see you there. Yep. Nothing interesting going on in my life.'" He gave her a look.

"Oh, sorry. I just…ran into him in the park." Clove frowned and looked around. "What are you doing here? Hiding from work?"

"I'll tell you later, go on." Rex told her.

The violet curtains shifted and Foxy poked his head out, leaning against the metal gate that the boss had installed a day after he put the new regulation into effect. However, the gate was awfully small and seemed easy to step over for someone of Foxy's size.

"What's it doing?" Clove whispered.

Rex shrugged at her. "Don't look at me I don't know anything about these things." When the robot didn't move any more, Rex relaxed against the wall again. "Don't worry it's probably just gonna think you're a kid or something, it doesn't know anything. Watch." He waved at Foxy. "Hey Foxy what time is it?"

"Yar." Foxy said in a bland tone, looking sarcastic.

"See?" Rex told Clove. "It's just a stupid robot. So, you were saying?"

Clove paused, staring at Foxy again, then gave her head a little shake and looked back to Rex. "I mean I sort of talked to him, it was kind of weird-

"Did you tell him that you had a crush on him?"

"What?! No!" Clove's face turned bright red. "Even if I did, he probably didn't even recognize me; he's blind."

"Whoa, whoa wait, he's _blind_?" Rex raised his eyebrows. "As in he can't see at all?"

"Yeah, he can't see a thing."

"Does boss know?"

"I don't think so…His niece said it just happened this morning." She frowned. "Why?"

Rex raised his eyebrows. "Mike's probably gonna have to find another job soon."

Foxy's ears twitched.

"…Why?" Clove asked.

"What good is a blind security guard?" Rex rolled his eyes. "All Mike does is stare at cameras all night, and if he can't see, then he's useless." He shrugged. "I guess he can give it a few days, since tonight's Friday. But if he's can't see again by Monday (which is the larger probability), he should probably talk to boss about it."

* * *

Foxy lay slumped against the wall in Pirate Cove in the dark wearing a frown on his face, pondering over the conversation he'd heard earlier. _Useless, now was that really necessary? _He muttered under his breath. Well, they weren't wrong. And it this little town, how many jobs were there that could be filled by a blind person? _What if he has to move out of town? What if he has to move out of state? _Foxy shook his head and slumped more onto the floor. _Quit worrying, you big idiot. _He told himself.

"Hey Foxy! Come on!" Bonnie called from the other room. "We're gonna play that song Vince wrote! You have to sing!"

"I don't sing!" Foxy yelled back.

"You're a dirty liar! You sing sea shanties all the time with Mike!"

Foxy growled into a grumble and rolled over on his side.

"Come on you big red fur ball! You have to sing otherwise we're gonna sound like crap!"

"No y'won't!"

"Are you throwing a tantrum again?!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

* * *

"I still can't believe she kissed you." Marionette chuckled, reading a book on Mike's recliner. "That's gonna be awkward at work, eh?"

"Yeah, I guess." Mike said, laying on his back on the couch and staring sightlessly at the ceiling.

"You guess?" She looked up from her book with a grin. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged. "I don't know…You think boss might fire me, since I can't see?"

She blinked a few times and lowered her book in her lap. "Maybe…Is that what's bothering you?"

"Yeah, kinda, it's my job. If I get fired I won't be able to go back to the restaurant and see Foxy and the others, and if I can't find another job here I might have to find one in the city…I'll have to move from this house…I'll have to use public transportation…I might have to get rid of Spike to get a trained guide dog…and what am I gonna do with you? You can't be at the restaurant; you're not a ghost like Vincent or the kids who can just wander around wherever you want." He wrung his hands nervously.

"If it ever comes to that, don't worry." Marionette shook her head. "I already know what I'll do if I have to live in the city, I've thought about that already."

"What'll you do?" He sat up with a frown. "Become a legal citizen?"

She laughed. "Yeah, that was the joke for a while; my legal name would be Mary-" She cut herself off. "Mary."

"Why have you worried about living in the city?"

Though he couldn't see it, she shrugged. "I thought about it when I first awoke in the warehouse and was dragging myself around the woods. I worried of what I would have to do if I couldn't find my way back to the restaurant." She gave a shudder. "It's funny…I'd forgotten what had just happened to me. I'm supposed to be dead." She blinked. "Huh…that's funny…That's reaaally ironic."

"What is?" Mike asked her, looking uncomfortable.

"It's just that…ah, it's nothing, it's kind of stupid." She shook her head. "Are you going to work tonight? Er…Saturday morning, I should say?"

"I don't think so… I mean, I usually have to call boss to let him know that I'm going to be working those two extra days." He lay back on the couch with a sigh. "I'm bored."

"Hi bored, I'm Marionette." Marionette said without looking up from her book.

"You're dead to me." He groaned.

She shrugged, then looked up. "Hey I almost forgot," She looked at him with a confused look. "You're not gonna do anything to welcome winter and the New Year?"

"Oh good idea, Marionette! While I'm at it I'll get you a few presents and some for the rest of our friends too- OH WAIT THAT'S RIGHT! I WON'T because I have NO MONEY." He threw out his arms and sighed. "You think I should get another job? Just so we could have a little more money?"

Marionette gripped the edges of her book. "Oh we're talking about money again. And we're using the whole 'we' thing again." She muttered nervously. "I don't know, Mike." She sighed. "I'd get a job, but there's not many people willing to hire…y'know…me."

He sighed heavily and let his hand hang over the side of the couch, looking depressed. Marionette looked at him and gave a sigh, putting a book mark in her book and setting it down on the coffee table. "Listen, you've got a lot of things on your mind right now," She said. "Why don't you just take a nap?" She picked up the blanket displayed on the back of the couch and laid it over him. He gave a sour look, but rolled over on his side anyways, pulling a throw pillow under his head. "And look at the positives while you're at it: a girl kissed you today, that's a first, isn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" He frowned.

"Well, I just assumed, I mean…" She shook her head as the hurt look on his face grew. "Never mind." She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Okay." He muttered, closing his eyes.

"You want me to tell you a story?"

"No." he growled, hiding his face under the pillow.

"You sure?" She raised an eye.

"Go away."

Marionette sighed. "Alright." Giving his shoulder another pat, she returned to his recliner and her place in her book.

* * *

Mike turned his head left and right. He couldn't see, and it was rather cold, but he still felt something familiar about the place. He could hear the gentle whistle of an air conditioning vent. He could hear the very light rustle of some kind of long fabric to his right, and a slow and quiet wooden creaking over his head. From a room beyond him, he heard multiple voices talking in what sounded like a warm and light hearted discussion. He tilted his head, trying to make sense of what they were saying or who was talking, but he couldn't. Very faintly, he could see the light stepping of tiny, dainty paws on a ground…but no sound came with it. He heard the mix of voices laugh together, and something told him to go towards them. When he took a step in their direction, he suddenly felt very small. Shaking off the feeling, he took several more uncertain steps in the direction of the voices and ran into a wall. As he did, his head filled with pain and an image. It looked like a circle with several smaller circles filling it.

Someone's voice slowly began to reach his ears, forming his name, but he couldn't hear it. It became louder and slowly clearer and he could almost make out who it was…

Mike opened his eyes and blinked in surprise. He could see his ceiling fan spinning quietly above him. _I can see again! _This would've made him very happy, if it weren't for the uneasy humming feeling going through him and his room, and a strange rumbling he heard coming from the living room. His head was pounding.

Groaning, he stood and stretched. Feeling more tired, he went out of his room towards the bathroom sink at the end of the hall to splash water in his face. The cold water didn't help him much, just increased his headache. As he stood with his head down, facing the bottom of the sink, he realized that the strange rumbling in the living room was his dog's growling. Mike frowned. That was unusual. Spike rarely ever growled during the middle of the night unless he saw a squirrel or cat outside, and even when he did, it never sounded like _that_. This time the Doberman's growling sounded…scary. Mike shook his head. _There's probably just some cat outside. _He shook his head, splashed water in his face, and looked in the mirror. In the mirror, far behind him, in the living room, there was a shadowy mass staring with open, empty eyes and mouth.

Mike gasped and stumbled back from the sink. _Oh my God. _He whirled around. It was taller than he was; a dark, shadowy, mass of fog with empty white circles as eyes lurking near the couch. It didn't even take the shape of a human. His heart racing through him, Mike called for his dog.

"S-Spike." He stammered weakly. Unfortunately, his dog ignored him. It was then that Mike heard something stirring from the couch and realized that Marionette was sleeping there. Though every instinct was telling him to run back into his room and lock the door (or climb out the window), he inched his way towards the living room. It felt like ants were crawling all over his back as he walked closer and closer to the massive shadow. He clenched and unclenched his fists. As soon as he entered the living room, the shadow seemed to stare at his movements.

Spike was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his fur raised and his muzzle scrunched up in an ugly snarl. His brown, usually soft eyes were bright with a scary light. Mike made his way towards him slowly, keeping his eyes on the shadow. He could see Marionette fast asleep on the couch, the shadow lurking right beside her head. Mike didn't have time to think about how he magically made his way from the couch to his bedroom in his sleep, but he did lower his eyebrows at Marionette in a bit of a frown.

"M-Marionette." He whispered quickly. "Pst. Wake up."

Much to his disappointment, the little robot remained asleep.

"Marionette," He slid out a foot and moved closer to her. "Hey, M-Marionette." He reached out to touch her foot. As he did, the shadow grew twice its size and let out a shriek, moving towards him. Spike lurched forward and started barking madly at the creature, his pearly teeth snapping and dripping saliva. Forgetting the fact that he himself was screaming at the top of his lungs, Mike threw open the front door and sprinted full speed out of his house and down the street, nearly tripping over a house cat and stepping on its dainty paws. He was too afraid to look back and didn't slow down in his running even when he couldn't hear his dog's furious barking anymore.

**Oh, if people get worried, I wasn't really gonna put any couples in this whole story, maybe one at the most. So any 'affection' you might see in this (possibly maybe specifically) this chapter is mainly sort of only for comedic purposes. I love comedy. It makes me smile when I don't want to. Oh so I wanted winter to come so bad and now that it's finally here- I freaking want summer back. Anything under sixty degrees should be illegal. **


	20. Chapter 20

**So I think this might be the last chapter I write for a while. The next few months are gonna be a real struggle for me, so don't expect a chapter a week. **

Mike sprinted down the sidewalk at full speed in the middle of the night. He could still see the massive figure in his vision…Its gaping eyes and shrieking voice…its dark murky shadowy shape that stretched out to him…right…behind…him. He threw open the door to the restaurant and raced down the hall, making a sharp turn and swinging into the office.

No sooner had he done so, the atmosphere changed completely.

The air became cold and tense. The feeling of sudden and horrible danger crawled onto Mike's back and tied itself around his throat. The door behind him was closed. The fan was buzzing calmly, despite the horror elsewhere, and there was someone sitting at the desk, nervously bouncing his knee and flipping through the cameras. He didn't look up at Mike.

"Who are you?" Mike asked, frowning at him.

The man didn't look up. He threw a glance at the open door to his right and shook his head, flipping through the cameras again.

"Oh, you're worried about the animatronics?" Mike gave a little laugh, still out of breath and a little terrified. "Don't sweat it, man, they're just messing with you…" But even as he said the words, the heavy sinking feeling of something horrible didn't go away, it just increased. The man still didn't take any notice of his presence.

"Hey, pal, listen to me." Mike said, standing in front of the desk. The man didn't look up. "Hey- I'm talking to you."

There was the sound of heavy clanking footsteps from the right hallway. The man at the desk gasped and quickly shut the door, hesitating before opening the door on his left. Having no need for doors of the living, the ghost of John floated through the door on the right as the footsteps faded away. Mike tensed, but smiled at the familiar face.

"Hey, John, who's the new guy here? He won't talk to me." Mike asked.

But even John didn't seem to notice Mike's existence. Instead, he looked at the man at the desk and smiled. "Hey, you're the new guy aren't you? Bonnie told me you weren't really scared…he said you were good at keeping him and the others away."

The man at the desk looked up and around as if he was hearing things from all directions. His eyes widened and flashed with horror. He pushed himself away from the desk and gripped his head with both hands, staring at the floor. His teeth chattered.

"You look scared now, ha ha!" John teased. "Are you scared?"

"It wasn't me…" The man choked, looking around the room and hugging himself. "It wasn't me I swear to God…I…I…" His voice cracked.

John's smile wavered. "What are you talking about? Bonnie just want to see you cry, that's all."

The man ran a hand through his hair and gritted his teeth, closing his hand over his eyes. "Oh God…I'm sorry…" He shuddered. "Oh, God…"

John took a few steps towards him. "Why are you sorry?" He asked quietly. "Did you do something bad?"

"Wait, calm down," Mike raised his hands to the man. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" But, it still seemed that his words weren't reaching either of them.

"I didn't do it; I swear to God I didn't do it…I just…" The man fell back in his chair and hugged himself tightly as if trying to block off a series of voices or images. "Please….Please God…"

"Are you crying?" John asked.

The man took a deep breath and reached into a bag at his feet. From it, he pulled out a pistol. With a shaking hand, he raised it so that the barrel kissed his head just over his ear.

_Click, click. _The gun told him.

Gritting his teeth with a miserable look on his face, the man squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

_CRACK! _The gun yelled.

"Oh God!" Mike covered his mouth with his hand.

John watched the man's body fall out of the chair onto the floor, blood draining out of a gaping hole in his head. His eyes filled with tears. He let out a little whine and took a few steps backwards. Two pairs of footsteps thundered down the left hallway and Freddy and Bonnie appeared in the doorway.

Freddy gave a short and small sigh. "John, what are you-ˮ

"Oh my GOD he's killed himself!" Bonnie yelled, pointing to the growing pool of dark red blood cradling the dead man's skull. As he did, they all heard an inhuman scream ring through the restaurant before it faded as if it had fled.

Freddy's face drained of color. "John, what happened?"

"I didn't mean it…!" John cried, tears streamed down his face. "I was just talking to him and he started talking really scared and then he-ˮ

"It wasn't your fault," Freddy told him, pasting a kind smile on his face and walking over to him. "How about we get out of this office and back to the main room, yeah?"

"O-okay…" John sniffed as Freddy turned him away from the body.

"But Freddy," Bonnie muttered under his breath. "What do we do about the b-o-d-y?"

Freddy gave a heavy sigh. "Leave it where it is. In the morning, someone will notice and contact the police. There's nothing more we can do, and we shouldn't bury him."

Mike, now ten times more terrified than he was when he first entered the restaurant, shoved past Bonnie and Freddy and ran down the hallway. "FOXY!" He yelled, heading towards Pirate Cove. He saw Foxy lying on his side, with his back facing Mike at the end of the hallway. "Foxy! Foxy! Hey!" Mike ran down the hallway and dove for cover behind the big animatronic, shoving him gently, though he was petrified. "Foxy."

"Mmm…" Foxy groaned, obviously not interested.

"Foxy wake up." Mike shoved his shoulders.

"Nnnnmm," Foxy growled. "Not right now, Mikey, Foxy's tired..."

"Foxy, no, wake up." Mike fell on top of him, starting to panic. "There's a big shadow thing in my house that's possessing Marionette and a man just killed himself in the office!"

"What?" Foxy growled tiredly, opening his eye. "No."

"Yes there is! There's a dead guy in the office right now I just saw it happen!" Mike choked on his words.

Grumbling under his breath, Foxy forced himself to sit up, yawning. "Mikey, there's no dead man in the office."

"Yes there is!" Mike whined. "Go ask Freddy and Bonnie they were there!"

Foxy gave a soft tired growl, but stood up and headed towards the main room, Mike clutching his arm and half-hiding behind him. In the main room, Freddy and Bonnie were sitting at a table across from each other with their feet up while Chica was practicing on the drum set with the stolen snare drum. Four of the five ghost kids were sitting at another table gathered around a large ghost-manifested world map, and John was walking into the room yawning.

"Oy," Foxy waved his hook towards Freddy and Bonnie. "A man's killed himself in the office?"

Bonnie and Freddy exchanged a frown. "What?"

"Wait, who's in the office?" Chica asked, pausing in her jam session.

"I don't know!" Mike cried. "I just walked in and there was a guy there and then he shot himself in the head!"

Freddy squinted an eye. "I think we would've heard the sound of a gunshot, Mike."

"YOU DID YOU WERE RIGHT THERE! YOU WERE JUST THERE!"

"Calm down, lad." Foxy said, patting Mike's shoulder.

"What's going on?" Vincent asked, exiting the hidden hallway on ghost rollerblades. "Mike, what are you doing here?"

"Vincent, I had a really bad dream!" John yawned again, walking farther into the room.

Vincent turned pale and swallowed hard. "Oh…did you?"

"Yeah," As John caught sight of the other kids' looks, he shook his head. "But it wasn't about you."

"Alright." Vincent gave a little nod, but still looked uncomfortable. He shook his head and looked at Mike, who felt like he was about to explode or cry or…something like that. "What's the matter?"

"I WAS JUST CHASED FROM MY HOUSE BY A MONSTER! AND I JUST WATCHED SOME GUY _KILL_ _HIMSELF_! AND NONE OF YOU BELIEVE ME!" Mike grabbed his head with his hands. "THAT'S WHAT THE MATTER IS!" He felt tears stinging the corners of his eyes, but he didn't want them to obvious.

"Wait, wait…" Vincent held up a tattered hand. "You watched a man commit suicide?"

Mike nodded.

"Where?"

"In the office."

Vincent took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "John."

John pasted an innocent grin on his face. "Yes?"

"Were you sleeping in the office?"

"…Yes."

Vincent looked up at Mike. "No one's dead in the office, Mike, you were just seeing one of John's memories. Remember how I told you that ghosts dream in memories?" He gestured to the office. "John was sleeping there when you walked in, and you got too close to him. It's okay; you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Mike nodded, although he didn't look comforted in any way at all.

"Hey wait a minute!" Chica pointed at him with her drumstick. "You've got your eyesight back!"

"Well, look at that." Freddy gave him a smile. "When did that happen?"

Mike shrugged. "I woke up in the middle of the night and I could see again."

"Queer thing," Vincent rubbed his chin. "And that's another question: why are you here? And what happened to your uniform?"

"And your shoes- it's the middle of January, you didn't bring a jacket or nothing." Bonnie raised an eyebrow, looking Mike up and down.

Mike suddenly remembered he was still wearing his jeans and T-shirt from earlier…and in his haste to escape his house he hadn't grabbed a jacket…or put his shoes on. He started to feel the sting of tiny cuts on his feet from running across the asphalt and sidewalk.

Foxy rubbed a tired eye with his hand and frowned at him. "Did you _sleepwalk_ the whole way here?"

"Geez, aren't you cold?" Chica asked him. "We've got some hot chocolate mix in the kitchen, I can make that for you."

"I didn't sleepwalk- I had to get out of my house," Mike explained. "There was something there."

Freddy and Bonnie exchanged a look.

"Somethin' chased you outta your own house?" Foxy asked him, frowning. "What was it? Is it still there? Do we need to beat it up?"

"It's…I don't know what it was." Mike shuddered. "It was in my living room and when I tried to wake up Marionette, it came after me."

Vincent's eyes slowly narrowed into a frown and he rubbed his chin. "A ghost perhaps?"

"I…think so." He remembered how it towered over him and the whole room seemed to lose color…A churning, swirling mass of shadow hovering right behind… "IT'S THERE!" He jumped and pointed directly behind Vincent.

The ghost-possessed suit whirled around on his roller blades and then gave Mike a look. "Um…?"

Bonnie laughed. "That's your _shadow_, idiot."

"No, no, no there was…I saw…" Mike ran a hand through his short hair.

Vincent's expression softened. He skated towards Mike and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Are you seeing things?" He asked him. "Listen to me, I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but if you're seeing or hearing voices, you should really let someone help you about it. Trust me."

"B-but my dog saw it, too." Mike told him. He remembered the way his usually soft dog's fur had fluffed up and sharpened, how his dark eyes brightened, how his teeth snapped and drooled… "Spike?" Mike turned and looked down at his side, but there was nothing there.

Vincent exchanged a look with Foxy, who was obviously worried. "Mike, are you taking any sort of medicine?"

"No!"

"Just tired maybe?" Foxy suggested. "How long did you sleep?"

"I-I don't know!"

"Why dontcha take a nap then?" Foxy said, leading him towards the table where Freddy and Bonnie were talking and patting his back. He pulled out a chair and sat Mike down in it.

"Here you go," Chica said with a smile, setting a foam cup of a steaming liquid down at the table in front of him. "It's really hot though, so be careful."

Mike nodded to her and put his head down, closing his eyes. He hated to think it, but maybe he _was_ imagining things. He gave a heavy sigh and tried to relax, the conversation between Bonnie and Freddy a few seats away from him slowly tuning out as his senses fogged…And then he saw them again. Small, dainty paws were walking towards him out of the left corners of his vision. He couldn't hear them walking, but he could see them clear as day. He sat up quickly and opened his eyes, turning towards them. As he did so, the rest of the area around him fogged until he could only see the small paws lightly walking towards him on the table. Slowly, he could see four soft-furred, cream-colored legs sprouting from the paws. And from them grew a soft-furred torso and abdomen with a long cream and white swishing tail. As the image got closer, he could see the pink nose, sharp amber eyes, long thin whiskers, and round cat's face.

Astonished, Mike watched the cat walk slowly from the far edge of the table closer and closer to him. It paid no attention to Bonnie and Freddy, and the more Mike looked at it, the more the table seemed to have the appearance of a sidewalk. He didn't even notice Vincent slowly approach him from behind.

"What do you see?" Vincent asked quietly.

"There's a cat." Mike told him, staring at the cat as it walked by him. It was so real he felt like he could reach out and touch it.

"Where is it?" Vincent pressed.

"On the table."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…Wait a minute…" The more he stared at the walking cat, the more the table began to look like a sidewalk. The more the room around him blurred, the more it looked like a neighborhood filled with sleeping houses and gentle streetlamps. He tilted his head and watched the cat walk past a yard with a swing hanging from a tree branch and a few balls and children's toys scattered in the grass. "I know that house…this is my neighborhood." Mike said, looking around and seeing dark gray clouds trying to hide the tiny chips of ice lodged in the sky, chilling the world below. He watched the cat slowly crouch, its soft-furred tail twitched back and forth. It leaped forward in one large bound and pinned down a tiny, ugly rat.

"Where are you?" Vincent asked him.

"I'm in my neighborhood." Mike said.

"No, you're not."

"Huh?" His vision swirled and his eyes traveled backwards across the path to the restaurant in a movement so fast his head pounded suddenly. He closed his eyes and held a hand to his aching forehead. "Ow." When he opened his eyes he saw Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy all staring at him with interest.

"What just happened to me?" Mike asked Foxy.

"Uh, well, y'see, the thing is…what you probably….what happened was, well it went…it was like…uh, well, Vincent?" Foxy stammered, turning to Vincent.

"Hm." Vincent pinched his chin and frowned thoughtfully. He looked at Mike, twitched his half-ear, and made a thoughtful noise. He crossed his arms, tilted his head, stuck his hands to his hips, crossed his arms again, and finally pinched his chin. He lifted his head and tilted it to Chica, Freddy, and Bonnie. "I don't know." He said. "Mike, do me a favor. Tell me what your dog is up to."

"My _dog_?" Mike echoed with a confused frown.

"Yep." Vincent gave a nod.

"I don't know; I don't know where he is…I kind of left the front door open on the way out."

"Retrace your steps." Vincent shrugged.  
Mike mentally retraced his steps. He'd run to the restaurant, so the path there was mostly a blur…but the more he thought about it, the more it easily appeared into his mind. He imagined the way to his house from the neighborhood entrance, there was a chain-link fence…and there was a broken board on the front porch steps- and the door was wide open, letting in an unwanted amount of chilly winter air.

"Aw man…" Mike sighed. Something else caught his attention; the garage door was open too. "Wait a minute…" As he looked inside, he noticed that his motorcycle was missing. "Aw that's great! I've been robbed! Geez, I wonder what else they took…" He looked through the open door in his house, but his living room seemed to be the way it was when he'd left it…Minus the awful ghost….And…Marionette was missing as well.

"What is it?" Vincent asked him, noticing his stressed expression.

"I think someone kidnapped Marionette." Mike concluded, looking at his snow globe on the coffee table and praying it didn't freeze. "But why would someone…?"

There was the humming sound of a motor from outside the restaurant. It cut off and not a minute later, the front door swung open and someone sprinted down the hallway.

"Guys, Mike's missing! He's gone!" Marionette yelled in a panic-stricken voice.

Again, Mike's vision flew back to his location, making his head ache suddenly. He clutched his forehead and blinked a few times. Foxy stepped aside and revealed Mike to Marionette, who was standing in the hallway with a scarf tied around her neck and a cloak across her shoulders. She blinked in confused surprise whilst letting out a sigh of relief.

"What are you doing here, _dummy_?!" She marched over to him and thumped him in the head, then gave him a hug. "I wake up in the middle of the night and the dog's gone insane and you've mysteriously vanished!" She gripped his shoulders and looked him up and down. "You came all the way here without SHOES on?!" She thumped him in the head again.

Mike slowly frowned at her. Apparently, she hadn't seen the terrifying ghost that chased him out of his house. He chose his words carefully. "Did you sleep well?"

Bonnie exchanged a look with Freddy and held up his hands in a confused gesture. Freddy shrugged at him and shook his head.

"Did I _sleep well_?!" Marionette echoed at him. "That's all you have to say?! You run here in the middle of the night and all you're worried about ME?!" She shook her head. "I slept fine, for the most part. I had a weird dream that I was playing a violin solo at a concert hall, but for the most part I was fine." She gripped his shoulders. "WHY."

Mike leaned away from her and slightly shrugged. "Well there uh…there was a ghost in the house."

"There was a ghost in the house." She repeated blandly. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Mike, I'd call you an idiot if we didn't see ghosts on a daily basis."

"Who's ghost did you see?" Bonnie asked, picking up Mike's cup of hot chocolate and taking a swallow of it. Behind him, Chica made a face and rolled her eyes, muttering something about hot chocolate.

"I don't know." Mike told him. "It was just a really big shadow-looking thing. I think I've seen it in the graveyard before…"

"And it chased you from the house?" Foxy asked him.

"Y-yeah…I tried to wake up Marionette, but it went after me." He scratched his head. "My dog went crazy over it."

"Ah, so that's why he was barking like that…" Marionette pulled out the chair beside him and fell into it, shaking her head at Mike. "Well, you've had quite the day, haven't you? Regained your vision, kissed a girl, ran from a ghost-

"Whoa-ho-ho, what?" Bonnie gave a laugh and raised his eyebrows at Mike. "That's a first, isn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Mike held out his hands to him as Foxy clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh and a grin.

Bonnie gave a rude grin and laughed. "You tried kissing a girl for the first time, eh? How different is that?"

Freddy frowned at him and shrugged his hands. "What…what are you talking about?"

"Why does everyone think I can't get a girlfriend?" Mike asked Marionette. "I'm not a total loser, right?"  
Bonnie chuckled at Freddy. "Well, you know…it's a change from what he's used to."

Freddy shook his head slightly. "What?" He squawked.

Mike whirled around and glared at Bonnie. "I'm not gay!"

Bonnie laughed, but slowly frowned as he saw that no one else was laughing. "…You're not?"

"Bonnie, quit being terrible!" Chica rolled her eyes, exiting the kitchen with a tray of several steaming foam cups. She set it on the table.

Bonnie frowned and looked at Mike. "You're not gay?"

"No!" Mike gave him a look. "Why would you think that?" He looked at Foxy. "Do I sound gay or something?" Foxy shrugged and shook his head.

"No, but I thought…" Bonnie scratched his head and looked at Mike again. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure!"

Freddy frowned at him for another good long minute before turning back to Mike. "So you have a girlfriend now? Good for you."

"She's not really my girlfriend." Mike explained.

"Yeah, and honestly, I think it'd kind of be awkward if you and Clove were a thing." Marionette told him.

Mike shrugged. "I dunno."

Vincent scratched his head. "So, Mike…" He started. "Going back to your vision…" He shrugged. "I have no idea. You make me confused and I don't understand it, and it kind of makes me want to punch you in the face."

"Why?" Mike groaned, running his hands through his short hair.

"Because all of this _stuff_ happens to you for no reason!" Vincent threw up his hands. "What are you doing to make planet Earth do inexplicable things to you?"

"I don't know! You know, my life was normal whenever I wasn't hanging out with you guys." Mike folded his arms and pointed to all of them.

"Normal as you got bullied by every kid in school?" Marionette raised her eyebrows. "I went through your old year book. Your 'friends' certainly have a way with words."

Mike folded his arms and glowered at her, his face turning red.

"You got bullied in school?" Freddy asked him, looking up.

"Dude, what the heck?" Chica shook her head slightly and lifted her hands. "Why didn't you come tell us? We woulda beat 'em up."

Bonnie gave a snort. "Psh. You would, not me."

"Mr. Night Guard," Laura tugged on Mike's arm. "What was the ghost's name?"

"Hm?" Mike tilted his head.

"You said you saw a ghost. What was their name?"

"I don't know- they didn't look like you, they just looked like a big shadow." He rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Maybe it was someone you knew trying to talk to you." Laura suggested, looking at him innocently. "Did someone in your family die?"

Mike blinked at her uncomfortably. "Y-yes."

Vincent patted her shoulder with a tattered yellow hand. "I don't think that would be it, but it's a good thought."

"You look stupid without your uniform!" Chris said, poking his head up out of the table.

"Vincent, Chris is being a bully!" Laura pointed.

"No I wasn't!"

"Yeah you were, you said 'stupid' and that's mean!" Jess added and folded her arms.

"_You're_ stupid!" John snickered.

Jess looked at Vincent as if John had just suggested genocide on kittens. "_Did you HEAR what he SAID_?!"

Vincent sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

* * *

"Okay, Rex, this is it." Clove told Rex, shifting her weight from foot to foot in Pirate Cove. It was Monday morning and it appeared that the sun had forgotten to send warmth down with its golden rays of light as blankets of snow were being laid across the Earth. So cold in fact that Rex looked rather silly angrily attempting to wake up Foxy while his nose was red from the cold.

"What is?" Rex said, shoving Foxy's shoulder repeatedly. He gnashed his teeth and glowered. "Come on!" He shoved Foxy harder.

"I texted you about it last night!"

"Oh, _that_?" Rex raised an eyebrow at her. "YOU can do that, I'm not."

"Why not? I need you; otherwise it's not as intimidating!"

He shook his head. "I don't care. You're making a big deal out of nothing." He threw up his hand. "Mother fu-

"-un day, isn't it?" Clove cut him off with raised eyebrows.

His face reddened but he still scowled. "He won't wake up!"

Clove blinked in surprise at Foxy, who was snoring against the wall. "Maybe he's broken?"  
"No, if he was broken, he wouldn't be snoring." Rex raised an eyebrow. "And even then there wouldn't be a good reason for him to be broken, these things don't just spontaneously stop working over the weekend."

"Well they are kind of old…"

"So? Electronics don't _break_ after old age, they just get really slow." He held up a finger. "Unless you're talking about house hold appliances like stoves and washing machines because those break in like fifteen years."

"Here he comes!" Clove grabbed Rex's arm and drug him out of Pirate Cove. He shoved her hand off with a scowl. "Don't touch me."

"Sorry." Clove said. She lowered her voice. "Come on, we have to look intimidating."

Rex rolled his eyes. "Fine." He said through gritted teeth. He followed her and stood by her side as she approached Mike who had walked through the front doors less than five minutes ago. When Mike saw them, he smiled, but frowned as he saw the looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Clove exchanged a look with Rex before speaking. "We know what you're keeping from us." She said. "We know aaaaaall about it. About _them_."

Mike's face turned pale. He swallowed. "Oh."

"Meet us at the park at 1:30 tomorrow morning. And bring the others."

"I will." He rubbed the back of his neck and quickly left.

Rex frowned after him. "That wasn't suspicious at all."

"I told you so!" Clove said, giving a little jump. "But you didn't listen!"

"Hey, guys, what are you doing?" Another employee called to them. "Rex, I thought you were supposed to be in Pirate Cove."

Rex rolled his eyes, gave Clove a scowl as if he blamed it on her, and went back to Pirate Cove. Foxy looked at him suspiciously. Rex frowned at him and raised his hands. "What? Don't give me that look." He leaned against the wall and tilted his head back. "Good job me. Talking to robots that can't even understand you." _…Or can they?_

**Okay, so like I said this is kind of going to be the start of my second hiatus. Like how at one point before I didn't upload anything for about 3-4 months? That'll be similar to this. What can I say? Life's going downhill, you know?**


	21. Chapter 21

**Okay, you guys ever been writing your story and- you're not-you're just minding your own business like a natural human being- and then all of a sudden you go BACK and look at like the first chapter of your story and cringe at something horrible? Me too. *cough* *cough* Melanie *cough* cough***

Marionette walked into the kitchen singing loudly to a CD playing from radio/CD player Mike had. She tapped her foot in rhythm as she opened the refrigerator and then the freezer, looking for something to snack on.

Mike came into the room briskly, throwing his cap onto his head. He then frowned as he realized what kind of music was radiating through the speakers of his radio.

"What is that?" He frowned. "That's not the 80's station."

"Nope." Marionette said, shifting through the things in the freezer, and becoming disappointed as she didn't find any ice cream. "It's a CD."

Mike picked up the album case from a spot on the counter. "When did you get this?"

"I went out and bought it the other day." She told him, handing him a bagel and a carton of milk.

"You went to the store while I was out?" Mike frowned at her. "In the _daytime_?" He glanced at what she handed him. "And what's this for?"

"Yes, I was wearing my cloak and nobody was suspicious." She rolled her eyes. "And _that_ is for breakfast." She headed into the living room and went to the coat closet.

Mike wrinkled his nose. "Maybe I don't want a bagel. Maybe I want coffee and a muffin."

"No!" She called from the closet, sliding her cloak off a hanger. "You get stomach aches when you drink coffee and whine about it all afternoon!"

He shrugged and took a gulp from the carton. "What'd you do with my car keys?"

"They should be on the counter, why?" She asked with a frown, straightening her cloak and looking herself over in a handheld mirror.

"We need to take the car to work today." He said with a nervous tone.

She grinned and set the mirror down. "Oh really? Why?"

"Because," He sat down on the couch and started to tie his shoes. No sooner had he done so, his dog ran by at lightning speed and the bagel on the coffee table 'mysteriously' vanished. "Clove and Rex kind of have an idea of what's going on around here and they told me to meet them at the park at around 1:30. I thought it'd be easier to take the car."  
She gave a laugh. "I sure hope you don't mean trying to fit all seven of us in that car of yours, unless you want to share laps or something and I don't think that's gonna happen." She leaned on her hip. "You'd need a van, or y'know, an SUV."

He sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But where am I gonna get one of those? I can't afford it."

She shrugged. "I don't know. But we'd better start the car up now. We won't make it on time if we're walking at this rate."

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

* * *

"Here," Vincent passed the three each a sheet of music. "I arranged a few songs for you _four_ to play." He threw a look at Foxy as he mentioned the number and the robot merely rolled his eye at him. As Bonnie strummed on his base, concentrating on the written music, Vincent continued, passing out four other sheets of paper. "Obviously, I didn't write these on my own. But I figured you guys would rather play something other than, you know, what you already play. Just for fun."

Freddy rolled his eyes and turned on his heel to walk back stage. "I'll get the spare guitar."

Chica frowned at the first piece she had sitting on her music stand, tapping lightly on her drum set. "I've never heard this song before."

Bonnie, who was sitting on the edge of the stage, turned his head to quickly frown at her. "Yes you have!"

She shook her head. "Mm-mm." She said negatively.

"Yeah, you have, it was your favorite song for like an hour." He looked at the music and sang as he strummed. "_I've got the prettiest girl in the whole wide world_."

"Oh yeeaaaaaaaaahh!" Chica pointed her drumstick at him with a grin. "Okay, I remember now."

Bonnie rolled his eyes.

From the front of the building, two voices echoed through the hallway.

"See? That wasn't so bad."

"That was horrible."  
"Come on."

"Horrible."

"Ay." Vincent said as Mike and Marionette entered the room.

"Yeah, come on guys, we gotta go to the park." Marionette said, shifting from one foot to the other.

"What for?" Freddy asked, walking back on stage with the spare electric blue guitar in his hand.

Mike rolled his eyes and explained the situation to them.

"That's a horrible idea!" Freddy glared. "Just don't show up and STOP COMING INTO THE RESTAURANT DURING THE DAY!"

"I don't see a problem with it." Vincent shrugged.

"Yeah, let's beat 'em up." Chica suggested.

"OR: we could just stay home!" Freddy threw up his hands.

"And cry." Bonnie added.

Freddy glared at Vincent. "WHY IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?"

"It's not necessarily good, but…" He gave a laugh and a shrug. "What are Clove and Rex gonna do?"

"Take pictures and videos on their fancy little gadgety phones." Freddy growled, wrinkling up his face and raising his hands to pantomime texting.

"Fancy little gadgety phones?" Marionette and Vincent echoed in synch.

"You know, like a smart phone."Mike said, holding up his own.

Bonnie snickered. "What happened to your flip phone?"

"Hey," Mike defended himself. "Having a flip phone was the _shit_ when I was in high school."

"That's a PHONE?" Marionette snatched it from him and turned it on, touching it everywhere with wide round eyes. "AMAZING!"

Chica gnashed her teeth at her. "Yeah, I forgot, you just woke up from a twenty-year coma a few months ago. Technology kind of grew a little bit…a lot a bit."

Mike gently took his phone out of her hands and placed it back into his coat pocket.

Vincent shook his head and then snapped his fingers. "Okay. All in favor of going to the park, say 'I'."

Chica, Bonnie, Mike, and Marionette each raised a hand and said. " 'I'."

"Those against it?"

"Me." Freddy glared at all of them. "This is horrible!"

"We'll just smash their smart phones." Bonnie shrugged. "Then what are they gonna do?"

"Foxy, what do you think?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, you're awfully quiet." Chica told him.

Foxy shrugged. "Tired. I don't care really, what we do." He gave a chuckle and shook his head, walking over to join them. "I'm so tired."

"You know, ever since you started going to sleep at night you've been tired all the time." Chica said, climbing off of the stage.

"That's probably in part because he isn't doing much during the day either." Freddy added.

Chica shrugged. "Then maybe we should do more adventurous things at night."

"That is not what I said at all." Freddy shook his head.

"So we're going?" Marionette asked, swinging the keys around her finger. "We are going to have to walk though, there's no way we can all fit in the car. Unless, you know, you want the most awkward car ride in the history of ever."

Vincent nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

"I rode in the car for nothing?!" Mike groaned.

"Can we come too?!" John asked hopefully, tugging on Vincent's arm, the rest of the ghost kids stood eagerly behind him.

Vincent smiled and kneeled in front of them. "Sorry kids, I think it would be a little too scary for Clove and Rex to see the ghosts of five dead children. But," He grinned before the kids could get disappointed. "You can watch TV in the manager's office while we're gone."

The kids all grinned at each other and headed to the office.

"Be good!" Vincent called after them. He turned on his heel to everyone else. "Are we ready?"

Five voices said 'yes' and one very angrily said 'no'.

* * *

"Where are they?" Marionette asked Mike as the seven walked through the front gates and into the snow-speckled park. The pure, chilling glitter painted the dark and bare treetops, and dusted benches and children's play equipment like powdered sugar on funnel cakes. In the still blanket of fresh snow, two sets of footprints lead off through the park.

"I guess we follow that." Mike suggested.

"We should have a snowman contest." Chica said, looking the snow over as if gathering materials for a sculpture.

"Or we should have a snowball fight." Bonnie suggested. He added, in a lower voice. "The secret is to put rocks in the snowballs."

"Quit being terrible!" She gave him a shove and he laughed.

The footprints took the seven to the back of the park, near the lake, which was now frozen solid, turned into a solid blanket of unmoving white.

"Wow." Chica said as they all stopped to stare at it.

"Mike. Figure skating. Go!" Bonnie shoved Mike onto the ice and he slipped and fell.

"You know what?! _I_ wanted to do figure skating but FREAKIN DAD said no!" Vincent told them.

Marionette looked back at the footprints and saw that they made a right at the lake, heading through some trees to a part of the park where she, and probably the majority of people, had never been to or noticed before. She lead the group, following the tracks closely.

Vincent frowned and looked around. "I don't think I've ever been to this part of the park before."

"Me neither." Mike said, pulling his coat tighter around him.

Marionette shrugged. "I'm just following the tracks." She shrugged.

Bonnie elbowed Chica. "Watch. We'll get there and it won't be Clove and Rex, it'll be a couple of weirdos making out or something."

Foxy snickered and Freddy made a disgusted face at them.

Vincent rubbed his chin. "I wonder what the kids are up to…"

"I can't press the buttons right on the remote!" John complained, pressing the buttons on the remote multiple times while the other four ghost kids sat in chairs they'd taken into the manager's office, staring at a blank, black TV screen. "Stupid ghost hands!"

"We need a living person." Paul said. "Or a robot suit thing like Vincent has."

"We could just posses the TV." Jess suggested.

"I hate doing that." Laura whined.

"There's a dead robot in the third room in the hidden hallway!" Chris said, floating off of his chair. "We can use that."

"Good idea!" John said. "I'll go get it!"

"Hey, I thought of it first!" Chris said. "_I'll_ get it!"

Paul twiddled his thumbs. "Vincent said we shouldn't use that robot. He says it wouldn't be fair; we'd keep fighting over it."

"Come on, Paul. Don't be a chicken." John said.

"Yeah, not in front of the _girls_." Chris added. "Besides, it's only for one thing. We just need it to turn the TV on and change the channel."

Paul scratched his neatly combed hair. "Hmm…Okay."

* * *

"I'm sure it's nothing mischievous." Marionette said in an earnest voice, though she rolled her eyes. "Kids _never_ do anything to cause _mischief_." She looked at Mike as she spoke.

Vincent didn't catch onto her sarcasm. "You're right." He said. "And, they're good kids…"

The tracks led the four down a rather small, but steep hill to a clearing surrounded by trees. It would have, probably, been very dusty if it weren't for the thin layer of snow painted over top it. Standing in the back of the clearing, arms folded, were Clove and Rex.

Upon seeing the seven, their eyebrows raised and surprise grew on their faces.

Mike shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "Well I'm here. What'd you want to talk about?"

"You actually _brought_ them?" Rex asked, frowning.

"That's the one, Rex!" Clove pointed to Vincent. "That's the one in the room I was telling you about!"

Bonnie, Freddy, Chica, and Foxy turned to stare at Vincent. Bonnie gave a snort. "Geez what did you do?" He paused. "Other than, you know, everything ELSE you did."

Rex and Clove gasped.

Vincent shrugged. "I don't know she just walked into the hallway and found me."

"Y-y-y-you actually _t_-_talk_?!" Clove stammered.

"Uh, y-you actually talk?" Bonnie mocked with a laugh.

"Bonnie, _quit_ being terrible!" Chica elbowed him.

Freddy crossed his arms, looking all of them with intense disapproval. "Nope. This was a bad idea. I knew it."

Clove and Rex stared with gaping mouths and eyes as wide as saucers watching the conversation unfold before them.

"C'mon Freddy, loos'n up." Foxy told him. "Look, nothin' bad's happenin' right now, y've got nothin' to worry about."

"Thaaaaaaaaaaaaat's trippy." Rex said, his shock fading and a half smile curling his lip.

"W-w-wait…" Clove ran her hands through her hair. She looked at Vincent. "I-if you could talk all this time, w-why didn't you talk to me."

Vincent shrugged. "I didn't want to."

"Who _are_ you?"

"Springtrap." Vincent said.

"And, you've been locked up? For no reason? But you're still active? Does everyone know that? Where you looked up for a reason? How come I've never seen you before?" Cloves words came in a flustered rush.

Vincent frowned slowly as if trying to process all she was saying, but really, he was trying to come up with a sensible lie for each question. "I was locked up well over twenty years ago. When they remodeled the place, the boss wanted to keep me for some reason, but he figured I was broken beyond repair." He looked down at himself. "Which I kind of am…"

"But you still work?"

"Yeah."

"Was that blood on the walls?"

Vincent paused, then shook his head. "No. Paint."

"Why was it all mostly splattered in that one place then? It really looked like blood splatters."

"It was a practical joke."

"How long have _you_ known about all this?" Rex asked Mike, gesturing to the six robots.

Mike gave a chuckle. "Since I was a kid, I guess? A really, really long time."  
"Since you were a _kid_?" Rex and Clove echoed in synch.

"Mike used to come so often we kind of got used to him." Marionette said with a shrug.

Clove pointed. "You brought your…niece…?"

"Who, me?" Marionette flipped back her hood with a smirk and crossed her arms, leaning on her hip.

Rex wrinkled his nose. "Ew, where did THAT one come from?!"

"Yu-y-yu-YOU?!" Clove threw out her arms. "It was YOU this WHOLE TIME?!"

Mike rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a really long story…"

"All that stuff about you moving here- you made that up?!"

Marionette shrugged. "So?"

"But…I-I don't understand." Clove ran her hands through her hair. "I thought you were deactivated after the Bite."  
"I was supposed to be." She said. "But my 'executioner' chickened out last minute and got some other guy to do it and, well…this guy was a little sympathetic. He just put me in a coma that…accidentally lasted twenty years."

Clove leaned over and placed a hand on her forehead, looking incredibly flustered. She stared at all of them, and let her arms hang loosely, not knowing what to say. "I think…I think I just need to…" She fell over in the snow on her backside. "Yeah."

Rex, who looked as though he wasn't at all fazed by this, pointed at Mike and spoke in a relaxed, still slightly monotone voice. "So you knew about this whole thing since you were like six?"

"Six or seven…around that age, yeah."

"Cool." He said. Rex then frowned. "Wait a minute, who was that guy chasing me the other night? Because I _know_ that wasn't you."

"Hm." Vincent rubbed his chin. "You probably saw Moxie."

"_Moxie_?" Rex repeated slowly, raising his eyebrows. "Who's that?"

"Well…it's easier if we show you." Vincent explained. Though he didn't notice, Mike grinned beside him. Vincent snapped his fingers and stepped out into the clearing, waving his hand for Foxy and Mike to follow him. "Alright guys, time to shine."

Mike gave a jump and followed him.

"Marionette, I'm gonna need your assistance this time."

"With _what_?" Marionette asked, following him.

"I'm gonna need you to catch Foxy when he falls." Vincent explained, turning Mike so that he stood side-by-side with Foxy.

"Sorry, lass." Foxy shrugged with a chuckle. "Can't really help it."

Marionette rolled her eyes with a snicker. "Yeah, yeah whatever." She smiled and stood behind him as if it was a trust fall exercise.

Vincent stood in front of them. "Ready?"

"Aye."

"Ready, ready!" Mike snapped his fingers.

The Springtrap suit fell limp for a moment. Foxy shivered and Mike suddenly doubled over shuddering. Marionette held out her arms as Foxy fell backwards as if he'd suddenly fainted, and in the minute Vincent stood up again in the Springtap suit, Moxie stood in front of him with a half-grin on his face.

* * *

"Grrrr! Grrrr! I'm a big yellow-bear and I'm gonna eat you!" Chris stomped down the hall in the big, clanking, rotting yellow bear animatronic that, like the old Springtrap animatronic, had been deactivated long ago.

Laura and Jess squealed and giggled in fake fear.

"Chris, stop playing, we need to use that for the remote!" John said.

"I hate this thing!" Chris complained, stumbling into the office. "It's really hard to move around in!" He waddled to the couch and sat down heavily, then floated from the suit with a shiver. "It's gross!"

"Didn't Vincent put one of us in that?" John asked, tilting his head as Chris floated down beside him.

"I think it was me." Paul tipped his head.

"I think you're right." John nodded. He stuck his arm into the suit's and used it to pick up the television remote and click it on. "You're right, Chris, this thing is tricky!"

"What do you want to watch?" Paul asked aloud.

"Can we watch Fairies in the Woods?" Laura asked. "I love that."

John snorted. "Ew, no!"

"How about a history thingy?" Jess suggested. "Sometime people talk in funny languages; I like to hear them speak."

"Booooring!"

"How about Violet Jets?" Paul suggested. "That's awesome."

"Na."

"How about Endless Trials?" Chris suggested.

"That movie is sad!" Jess said.

"Yeah, it made me cry!" Laura added.

"Nope! Not that either!" John used the dead robot's arm to maneuver through the television. "I've got an idea…let's watch Chanteys."

The four kids gasped and stared at John.

"We can't do that!"

"Vincent says we're not allowed to!"  
"Yeah, Bonnie says it has bad stuff in it!"

"Chica says they say mean words that only bullies say!"

John shrugged. "So? They're not here right now. And they don't need to know. Besides, it's supposed to be funny. And look how cool it is!"

The four other kids exchanged looks amongst each other. John was right about everything; especially Chanteys looking cool.

"Okay." Chris said.

"Let's do it."

"Alright."

"That's fine."

"Cool." John grinned. "Do you want to watch season one?"

"Nah, the others are always talking about season two." Jess said.

"Okay."

* * *

"That was record time, wasn't it?" Vincent high-fived Moxie with a laugh.

"I don't care!" He grinned.

Chica and Bonnie applauded quietly, standing up straight and pretending to be regal and refined.

"I say, my fellow automaton, what an exhilarating performance." Bonnie said to Chica in a rich accent.

"Exhilarating indeed, my companion. That was _most_ impressive." Chica replied with the same tone.

"THIS IDEA SUCKS!" Freddy yelled, throwing back his head.

"WAH-WUH-WH-WE-W-W-WHAAAAAAT?!" Clove jumped up pointed and shouting. Rex just stood stiffly with wide eyes.

Moxie gave a little laugh. "Yeah, I know, it's great isn't it?"

"MIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

"Well, Springtrap pushed Foxy's soul into Mike's and then I happened." Moxie shrugged.

Bonnie and Chica made faces and exchanged a look with each other. "I don't like the way he described that."

"Yeah me neither, that was really creepy."

"IT'S ALWAYS CREEPY!" Freddy yelled. "They COMBINE THEIR SOULS into ONE ENTITY! That is- WHO DOES THAT EVER?!"

Marionette carefully laid Foxy's body down in the snow and turned to Moxie with a shrug. "Is that okay? I don't…I don't really…" she shrugged. "I dunno, man."

"It's fine." Moxie shrugged.

"How ya handlin', big guy?" Vincent asked, patting Moxie's shoulder.

"Good. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but you never know with Mike. He'll probably have a third eye or something this time." Moxie gave a chuckle and Vincent laughed.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Freddy gasped. "At the rate weirdness is traveling right now: THAT COULD VERY WELL HAPPEN!"

"Actually, wouldn't that help with his weird special vision?" Bonnie asked Chica.

"Probably, that'd actually be pretty cool!" She agreed with a nod.

"THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE FOR HIM!" Freddy gripped his head in his paws. "HOW WOULD HE EVER GET A GIRLFRIEND?! OR WIFE?! OR HAVE ANY CHILDREN?! WHAT WOULD HIS CHILDREN LOOK LIKE?!"

"Whoa, calm down." Bonnie held up a paw. "Remember, we're talking about Mike. He's probably not going to get any of those anyways."

"Bo-nniiieee." Chica said in a warning tone.

Moxie only chuckled. "I don't know. A third eye sounds pretty cool, I guess."

"I-I-I don't understand!" Clove ran her hands through her hair, looking at Moxie with wide eyes, walking around him slowly. "I-I d-don't get it! What _happened_?" She looked him up and down. "W-who are you?"

"And what happened to him?" Rex asked, pointing to Foxy, who lay unmoving in the snow.

"Foxy's soul is there." Vincent pointed to Moxie. "And so is Mike's. That's pretty much all there is to explain." He shrugged. "What it's like? I don't know, ask him that."

Clove's eyes grew big. "What IS it like?"

"Nice, I guess." He shrugged.

"Why do you look different?" She asked, looking at his longer hair and taller, squarer shape.

"Something about physical change. I'm stronger now, so that's a plus."

"Hey, look at the bright side," Bonnie shrugged. "You didn't roll on the ground in agony like you did the first time."

Moxie laughed. "I know!"

"A-agony?" Clove stammered, backing away from him.

"Na, it's fine." He said, rolling his eyes. "The first time is really, really painful. But by the second time you're pretty used to it."

Rex walked over to him and looked him over with his usual bored, almost angry-looking expression. "So what do you do? Like, are you useful or anything or is this some weird, creepy bonding thing?"

Moxie blinked, stared at him, and shrugged. "I dunno. The first time I was just used for tests, the second time I chased you down the street."

Vincent jumped and hopped from foot to foot in sudden excitement. "This is PERFECT! We have two other living humans here- so this just might work!"

Marionette looked at him with a disapproving frown. "No."

"Oh yeeeeah, I forgot you wanted to try that." Moxie gave a chuckle and cracked his knuckles.

Vincent looked at the animatronics with a grin. "Which one of you wants to try and beat up Moxie?"

"Why would I want to do that? Ever?" Freddy threw out his paws. "He would pulverize me."

"Yeah," Chica added. "And why would I want to beat him up anyway? That's two of my friends in one; that's like being a double bully."

"Me. Please." Bonnie grinned, stepping forward.

"I'll give it a try for the heck of it." Marionette shrugged, walking to stand beside Bonnie and leaning on her hip.

Moxie gave a little chuckle. "I'd let Bonnie do it, I'm not gonna hit Marionette, she'd snap right in half."

"Oh, _excuse_ me?" Marionette raised her eyes and crossed her arms. "Step aside, Bonnie, let a _girl_ show you how it's done."

"Come on!" Bonnie rolled his eyes.

"Fantastic!" Vincent clapped his hands and snapped his fingers. "Now, Clove, Rex, which one of _you_ wants to take him on?"

"No." Rex said.

"Uh-uh!" Clove shook her head and backed away.

"Come on! It's for SCIENCE!" Vincent clenched his fists in excitement. "Don't you want to be a part of SCIENCE?! This sort of thing is revolutionary!"

Moxie narrowed an eye at him. "As long as you don't use it for warfare."

"Right, right." Vincent smiled, then blinked as both Clove and Rex still lacked interest. "Oh, come on, you won't be alone!"

"Wait," Marionette blinked. "Oh I see, you want to merge my soul with one of theirs." She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Yeah, no thanks. Go for it Bonnie."

"WOOHOOO!" Bonnie raised his fist.

"What's the matter, Mary-girl?" Vincent asked, raising his eyebrows. "Scared?"

She scowled. "No, I just happen to be a little protective of, you know, everything that makes up who I am inside." She gritted her teeth. "And stop calling me that."

"See? Look?" Vincent said to Clove and Rex, ignoring Marionette. "Bonnie's a tough guy, you won't be alone. And it's just for fun, no one's going to die or anything."

Rex cocked his head with a look. "Merging my soul with a robot's to fight a giant man like Moxie? Yeah. No. I don't like getting hurt for fun, thanks for the offer." He gave a chuckle.

"I-I-I don't know…" Clove stammered. "M-maybe. It won't hurt, will it?"

Vincent stood her beside Bonnie with a chuckle. "You tell me."

* * *

"Get him, Simon!"

"Yeah, cut his arms off!"

"Ah! Look out for Shad!"

"That no good traitor- he's trying to escape the ship!"

"Look, Abby's about to shoot him with her harpoon gun!"

The five kids eagerly commented, nearly gluing themselves to the screen in excitement. They'd watched several episodes of Chanteys and were hooked on the show. True, the fights were brutal, the language was harsh, not to mention all of the drinking and questionable morals the show held. Most of the humor and jokes flew right over the kids' heads. Still, they loved what little humor they understood, and were intrigued by the story.

"Oh no! That guy's about to set fire to the ship!" Chris pointed, leaning on the edge of his seat.

Laura and Jess cringed suddenly. "Sebastian!"

"Don't worry, look, there's Byrn!" Paul told him.

"Byrn always BEATS UP Sebastian!" John shook his head. "Look!"

"Well, yeah, but he won't let Sebastian die, see?"

"Yes he is, look!"

"Bryn, you jerk!" Jess yelled. "I hope you die!"

"See, Seymour's going back to help Sebastian."

They continued to watch the fight on screen with excited eyes. Laura and Jess hugged each other, obviously concerned for the wellbeing of the characters. John, Paul, and Chris talked eagerly about who would win and who would get beaten up and who would kill a lot of bad guys and how many bad guys would be lost to Abby's harpoon gun. After a while, they began to relax against the couch as the fight scene that had excited them so died down. Chris elbowed John with a grin.

"This is the part where they get drunk and celebrate. I heard Bonnie and Chica talking about it earlier. They said it was really funny, but they also said something weird happened." He rubbed the back of his neck. "They got quieter when they saw that I was listening."

"Hm. Wonder what it is." John said, his hands laid across his stomach.

* * *

"I d-don't know about t-this…" Clove told Bonnie, standing beside him.

"Aw, c'mon!" Bonnie threw an arm around her with a grin and pointed to Moxie. "We're gonna show him who's boss, yeah?"

"M-maybe…"

"Having second thoughts?" Vincent asked with a small smile. "Don't worry about it, it's all in good fun…" he trailed off with a frown and rubbed his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Marionette asked.

"EVERYTHING!" Freddy yelled before Vincent had a chance. "EVERYTHING IS WRONG ALL THE TIME EVER!"

"I don't know…" Vincent ran a hand between his ear-and-a-half. "I've got a funny feeling." He turned to Moxie. "That…throwing your vision thing…can you do it?"

Moxie nodded.

"Can you check on the kids?"

Moxie blinked and squinted. His eyes moved several directions as he mentally retraced his steps back to the restaurant. He smiled. "They're fine. They're watching some TV show and singing along." He blinked suddenly as his vision flew back to where he was. "Oy..."

Vincent sighed in relief. "Thank you." He rubbed the back of his head with an uneasy feeling. "Still…"

"Kids? You have _KIDS_?" Rex echoed in surprise.

Vincent sucked in a breath and held it, looking from Clove to Rex, who were staring at him in surprised confusion, and then to the others for some sort of guidance or advice; but they were all looking at him with the exact same expression he wore. "No." He said at last. "Baby sitting."

Rex narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Who's kids?"

"They're-

"Mine." Moxie said, almost impulsively. At once, he looked confused with himself.

"Wouldn't you mean 'ours'?" Marionette corrected. "Since you're two people in one?"

"Mike and Foxy's children…" Bonnie said. He exchanged a look with Chica and they both scrunched up their faces. "Eeeeewwwww!"

"But how would that work in the first place?" Rex frowned. "One of them is a robot!"

Bonnie and Chica exchanged another disgusted look and further scrunched up their faces. "Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww!" They groaned in synch.

"I meant MIKE'S kids, they're MIKE'S." Moxie said, waving his hands and laughing hard. "My kids…Oh my _god_…" He doubled over and held his stomach, he was laughing so hard. "What would they…" He fell to his knees into the snow, heaving with laughter.

Bonnie exchanged another look with Chica. "I didn't think it was that funny." He told her from the corner of his mouth.

"I thought it was disgusting."

Moxie fell on his stomach, face-down. Beside him in the snow, Foxy sat up laughing heartily. Mike pushed himself out of the snow with a half-grin.

"No, no, no!" he laughed. "That would be horrendous!"

"That'd be HILARIOUS!" Foxy laughed. "Walkin' down the street…hand-in-hand…da, da, da-ˮ He slammed his good paw in the snow and laughed.

"That just…" Mike shook his head, chuckling. "No!" He laughed.

"Uuummm…" Clove pointed at them. "You're both back…"

Foxy and Mike looked down at themselves and then to each other. Foxy laughed. "Oops, hang on, let me try again…I'll try again, sorry people." He lay back in the snow.

"Foxy, you can't do that on your…own…" Vincent trailed off as Mike shuddered and then Moxie stood up and brushed snow from his clothes. "Well, look at you Mr. In-dep-end-ent."

"That's amazing, you guys!" Chica grinned.

"That's a red flag is what that is!" Freddy yelled in outrage. "That," He smacked his palm to his forehead and then held it out in frustration. "WHO DOES THAT?!"

Vincent scratched his head in confusion, and then looked at Clove and Rex. "Why did you want us all to meet you here, anyway?"

"I…I don't really know…" Clove rubbed the back of her neck. "I guess I just wanted to see if my fears were really true." She looked an all of the animatronics in front of her. "And I guess they were true…"

"YOU MEAN THIS WAS COMPLETELY _POINTLESS_!?" Freddy bellowed, grabbing hold of his ears. He looked ready to pull out all of his fur.

"It's too late, Freddy," Bonnie said in a falsely woeful tone. "There goes the last of the good days as we knew them."

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Freddy stomped his foot. "IT HAPPENED ONCE IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN!"

"The…Good old days?" Rex raised an eyebrow.

"Listen, you two," Moxie reached over and put one of his large, strong hands on each of their shoulders. They tilted their heads back to look at him as he spoke. "A long time ago, we all used to be very happy. Something bad happened, and it changed all of that. Some people died, some people were…taken away, for a while. Twenty long years went by. For some of us, it felt like twenty decades, and for others," he glanced back at Marionette. "Maybe only twenty minutes. I don't know if you can tell, but lately, things have been going pretty nice, recently."

Rex and Clove exchanged a look with each other, and then looked around Moxie's broad shoulders at the others.

"We might be a little different from the rest," Moxie went on. "Might not have a beating heart or the blood and name of a common family, might not be able to move here and there, and we might not be the easiest thing to look at; but we've all got a soul, just like two of you. Some decisions we can't make on our own; people make them for us. We can't exactly live our lives to the fullest. Do us a favor," He sighed. "Try not to tear apart the lives we were given. If you'd like, we can put this meeting behind us and play dumb for you- like this all never happened. Or, if you'd prefer, we can loosen up around you. We've all gotten pretty tired of holding grudges against people."

"But…I…don't know." Clove blinked. "What about all that stuff that happened before? Those missing kids, and that Bite- what about all of that?"

Moxie sighed, taking a deep breath before responding. He threw a glance at Vincent, and then looked back to Clove and Rex. "There are some things that you aren't going to understand yet, even when they're explained properly. In time, perhaps, these things will make sense to you, and you'll gain a better understanding of us, too. Until then, it's best to leave those chapters closed."

"But how do we _know_?" Rex asked, looking as uncertain as Clove. "How do we _know_ you're not just trying to cover up for something that…something…horrible?"

Moxie looked at them with kind and understanding eyes. "You don't. I'm not going to shove it down your throat and force you to understand." He backed away from them and held out his hand. "I can only hope that you'll trust me."

Rex and Clove stared at him uncertainly. They looked behind him to the robots gathered and standing in the snow, their glowing eyes illuminating the snow on their faces. Clove's eyes lingered on Springtrap. Rex stared at Marionette, frowning. A chilling breeze swept through.

"I can't believe this." He growled, shaking his head. He reached out and shook Moxie's hand. "I trust you." He said, still frowning.

"I trust you, too." Clove said, shaking Moxie's hand after Rex. "Well…_you_, at least." She pulled her hood over her blonde braid. "Man, it's cold outside." She shivered the exhaustion in her face obvious. "Maybe…we should all go home."

"Finally! I thought this idea was stupid in the first place, really I even said so." Freddy threw his hands up in the air, turning and marching back through the snow towards the restaurant.

Bonnie helped Chica pick Foxy's body off of the snowy ground and carry it. "Jeez, he's gonna be pretty cold once he gets back in here." Bonnie chuckled.

"Not as cold as your soul, Bonnie." Moxie said as he walked past the two.

"Don't worry Bonnie," Chica said as Bonnie paused to consider Moxie's comment. "There's a lot of snow here you can use to soothe that burn."

Marionette flipped up her hood and followed Freddy and Moxie with Vincent at her side. "The good old days are dead, really." She muttered.

"Oh here we go again, don't do this now…" Vincent grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Rex and Clove watched them leave, waiting until they disappeared into the rest of the park, waiting until their voices had faded into the sounds of air moving through the sleeping town. At last, when it seemed that they'd really gone, Rex turned to Clove with a monotone look on his face.

"If they murder us, I blame you."

* * *

The kids sat relaxed on the couch with their eyes staring widely at the screen. Neither of them had really said anything for the past few minutes, they'd just stared at the screen in stunned silence. Finally, Chris gestured to the screen.

"My mom said I'm not allowed to do that." He said.

"I saw something like it once on a movie…" John said. "But it wasn't like _that_. And my dad got really mad when he saw me watching it."

Laura looked at Jess, then to Chris, Paul, and John. "Why are they kissing so much?" She asked.

They all turned to stare at her. Paul shrugged. "Maybe they're just…really, REALLY good friends."

The office door opened and Vincent poked his head in with a smile. "Hey, kiddos, what are you-ˮ He caught sight of what was on the screen and shrieked.

** I love summer. It's fun. I've got a kind of busy summer this year. But that's okay. Also; I didn't mention this before, but I've been planning a kind of sequel to this story. Technically, it's a prequel. I've still got a few more chapters in this one before I end it, but I'm still debating on whether or not to do the sequel. One thing I know for certain, I'm rewriting the whole beginning of this story, and probably editing a lot throughout the rest of the story. There's a couple things I've seen that I realized didn't fit right or I just want to change. **


	22. Chapter 22

**Thank God and everyone holy summer's finally here. I hate winter, really. I tell myself that I don't, but I do. I'd much prefer being too hot while lying on a sunny beach than too cold bundled up in coats and blankets. I love the smells of summer; the beach, ice cream, chlorine, and sunscreen.**

"Okay…now…Freddy…you stand over there, by that tree…No, not too close. Just-grr! NO! Right-there! Stay RIGHT THERE!" Vincent held up his hands. "Good."

"This is a horrible idea! We should be at the restaurant like GOOD ROBOTS!" Freddy crossed his arms furiously, glowering at all of them from where he stood. He, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy were stationed at certain areas around the park in a widened circle. In between the four animatronics was a ghost. John stood between Chica and Bonnie, Chris stood between Bonnie and Freddy, Laura stood in between Freddy and Foxy, Jess stood in between Foxy and Chica, and little Paul sat on Vincent's shoulders, bending and twisting his ear-and-a-half. They were up to their shins in chilling snow, and although heavy black clouds locked away the moon and stars, not a single snowflake was visible in the sky.

"Not terrible. But really stupid." Bonnie said, raising his eyebrows and leaning against a frosty tree. As he did, he caught sight of two figures walking by the park entrance. "HEY PANSY!" He yelled, waving his arms. The two figures in front of the park stopped.

"I'M NOT A PANSY!" Yelled back the voice of a girl.

"I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU!"

"VERY FUNNY!" Yelled the voice of a man.

Foxy gave a chuckle as Mike and Marionette walked through the park entrance, Mike shivering in the cold.

"Cold, lad?" Foxy asked him with a grin.

"Oh no," Mike grinned in sarcasm. "I'm just chattering my teeth and hugging myself with this big coat on because it's a very productive and fulfilling daily exercise. YES I'M COLD!"

"Hi, Cold, I'M BONNIE!" Bonnie yelled with a laugh.

Vincent ran a hand between his ear-and-a-half. "Chris, smack him for me."

"Sorry, Bonnie." Chris reached up and popped Bonnie on the muzzle. Bonnie blinked for a minute, opened his mouth in the makings of a sharp retort, then stopped and decided it best not to argue with a kid-ghost.

"What's all this?" Mike asked Foxy, his speech visible in puffs of chilly air.

"Vincent says the kids have been seein' some strange ghost-related things around here. He's lookin' for it." Foxy shrugged.

"The ghost kids are allowed to run around the park during the day?" Mike asked.

"They sure are now after last week's 'adventure', isn't that right, kids?" Vincent folded his arms and tapped his foot, looking around at the children. They looked to the ground and shuffled their feet.

"I forgot about that." Mike scratched his head. "I was too busy uh…concentrating on being Moxie."

"They were watching CHANTEYS! CHANTEYS of all things!" Vincent threw up his hands.

"Well, hang on, season one isn't THAT bad." Chica said.

"It was season two."

"Oooohhh." Chica, Bonnie, and Freddy cringed.

"Don't tell me they were watching that part where Sebastian-ˮ

"I GOT THERE RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF IT." Vincent yelled.

This time, Foxy, Mike, and Marionette cringed with the other three as they gnashed their teeth, remembering the episode he was talking about.

"I didn't really understand." Paul shrugged. "I thought Simon-ˮ

"So you guys are looking for a ghost?" Mike interrupted suddenly, giving a nervous laugh.

"Mm." Foxy nodded, just as eager to change the conversation topic.

"What's the ghost been doing?"

"Causing people to see things that aren't really there." Jess said to him. "There's a word for that…but I forget what it is."

"How do you know all of that?" Mike narrowed an eye.

"When we go play in the park, we don't let living people see us. We don't mess with living people. This ghost just kind of…drifts around in and out of people's conversations, getting too close." She shrugged. "We've never seen him, but he seems kind of sleepy."

"They think he's attracted to large groups of people talkin' together." Foxy said. "So we're tryin' to lure 'em into the park, and Vincent's gonna take 'em down."

Vincent looked around in the sky and the park, his pale eyes scanning for the slightest signs of a ghost. After a good few minutes of standing around while the others talked, he rubbed his chin and threw back his head with a groan. "Don't tell me he's a day-time only ghost."

"There's a different between day-time and night-time ghosts?" Mike asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Sometimes." Jess shrugged. "Some ghosts only mess with people at night, and some ghosts only mess with people in the day."

"Why?!" Bonnie threw out his arms.

John shrugged. "Dead people are picky."

"You guys aren't." Mike said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes they are!" Vincent countered, Paul pulling on his ear with all his might. "You just haven't seen it."

"What's the big deal? Isn't everyone picky sometimes?" Chica asked with a frown.

"Yeah, but ghosts are EXCEPTIONALLY picky." Laura explained. "ESPECIALLY lonely ghosts. Ghosts who die on their own don't usually know that there are other ghosts out there like them, so they spend all of their time alone and get picky and mean and pretend that they hate living people."

"That's why most ghosts aren't friendly towards anyone." John said.

"You mean they're just lonely?" Bonnie asked. "What a bunch of bitches!"

"It's not necessarily being LONELY, it's being DEAD and lonely." Jess told him.

"Ghosts think they have whining privileges because they're dead." Vincent said. "Which, in the mortal world, would make sense. But not to other ghosts."

"Not to rain on your parade, Vince, but this isn't a very sturdy summoning strategy." Chica said. "How are you so sure this'll work?"

"I'm not. Not at all." Vincent said. "But there's a _chance_ it can work."

"Some ghosts are summoned by simple, stupid things." Laura snickered.

"Yeah, one ghost was attracted to the sound of running faucet water." Chris laughed.

"What determines the things that summon a ghost?" Marionette asked.

"Usually ghosts are summoned by things with significance to their life on Earth." Vincent explained. "For example, I find myself often wandering towards the sound of-

"Mike for Christ's sake, answer your cell phone!" Bonnie yelled, clenching his fists. "Or press the ignore button or silence it or SOMETHING I can't TAKE IT!"

Mike frowned at him. "My phone?" He pulled it out of his pocket. "It's…off right now."

Bonnie tilted his head, his eyebrows curving drastically.

"He's here, Vincent!" Jess called, pointing to Bonnie.

Bonnie jumped to the side, away from where Jess was pointing. "Get rid of him! Punch him in the face or something!"

"We can't." Jess shrugged.

"Why not?!"

"We can't see him."

"WHAT?!"

"Ghosts can be reeeeeaaally picky." John sighed, hunching forward.

"Everybody be careful," Vincent said, holding out his hands to them. "We don't know what all he's capable of."

"How dangerous can a ghost be?" Freddy's eyes widened.

"Tell you later…I don't want to give him any ideas."

"Or HER." Laura raised an eyebrow. "Girls can be evil ghosts."

"Oh my GOD, Laura, does that REALLY matter right now?" Chris rolled his eyes at her.

"When did you get here?" Mike pointed across the circle to Freddy's left. Freddy frowned, following his gaze and seeing that Mike was talking and staring at an empty space. Mike rubbed his forehead again. "A-aren't you a friend of…Oh jeez!" He jumped suddenly.

Marionette doubled over suddenly onto her knees. She made a choking noise and gripped her throat.

"There, there, he's there!" Chris pointed, floating up to Freddy's height. "Get him Vincent!"

"Tackle him to the ground!" Jess yelled.

"Cut out his stomach and beat him with it!" John waved his arms.

"See, this is why I can't let you watch Chanteys!" Vincent growled at them.

"H-help! Oh g-geez!" Marionette reached out towards her friends in the circle, shaking. "Oh god, help!" She then cocked her head to the side and her eyes grew wide. She spoke with a curious voice. "Wow, you're pretty, I mean _really_ pretty. Did you always look like this? Because, if you did, it makes sense."

Chica, who was standing directly across from her, raised an eyebrow and titled her head to the side. She gave a big shrug. "I guess I've looked the same for the past twenty years. I dunno."

Marionette jumped and whirled around so that she now faced Vincent, looking flustered. Her red cheeks glowed. "W-w-what's that supposed to mean?!"

Vincent rubbed his chin, then tilted his head and looked up at Paul. "What do you think?"

"I think he's trying to merge his soul with hers- or kick her soul out- but it's not working so they're just kinda," he moved his hands towards each other, then waved them aggressively. "Bouncing off of each other and talking."

"All in agreement with Paul's analysis?"

The other four ghost kids raised their hands and said "I!"

"All who oppose?"

Freddy frowned. "I'm very confused."

Vincent shrugged with a bit of a monotone look on his face. "I'm trying to teach them about ghost behavior so they know how to handle dangerous ghosts if they ever come across them." Paul bent Vincent's ear and with a little click, the top half came flying off. He stared bug-eyed at the others who gave him equal looks. Vincent, still with a monotone expression, blinked. "Paul did you just break my ear off?"

Paul took a breath. "No, but this little, tiny, half of it came off somehow, I don't know, I think it was the wind or something."

Vincent tightened his mouth with a half-chuckle. "I'll fix it."

"GUYS!" Marionette gasped, waving her arms. "GET HIM OUT OF ME!" She then turned around and shuffled her foot. "I w-was thinking of leaving anyways, I-I mean, you're still a girl, and it'd be k-kind of weird."

"Calm down, Marionette." Jess said. "Just keep him away from your brain and you'll be fine."

"You guys have brains?" Mike asked Foxy. "I know there's got to be some powerhouse of thought in you guys, but is it in the _shape_ of a brain or…?"

Foxy shrugged. "Probably just a powerhouse or somethin', yeah."

"What happens if he gets in my brain?" Marionette's eyes grew wide as she stared at Jess, then she gasped and took several steps back. She looked all around the circle and a horrified look grew on her face. "Oh…oh no…oh no!" Her hands started to shake. "I-I thought it was all over! I-I can't be here! I-I thought…I c-can't…Oh my God…" She started to hyperventilate. "No, no, no, no!" She stumbled to her knees. "I'm in…I can't…I'm with…I'm a-about…"

"I think he's getting scared." Laura said to Vincent.

"Listen, uh, both of you," Chica said, stepping towards her. "There's nothing to be scared of, we're all going to take good care of-ˮ She stopped suddenly and covered her ears, gritting her teeth. She stumbled and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Chica?" Bonnie blinked and moved towards her. "What's the big dea- OH MOTHER OF GOD!" he suddenly dropped to his knees and gripped his ears, trying to fold them shut. "IT HURTS! IT HURTS!"

"What hurts?" Mike tilted his head.

"I KNEW IT! THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA I FREAKING KNEW IT!" Freddy yelled, hopping from foot to foot.

"Does anyone else hear that ringing?" Vincent asked, twitching one of his broken ears. "Jesus …"

"I can hear it…" Foxy frowned at Marionette. She was shaking and staring around at all of them as if they were a pack of mutant wolves.

Mike glanced at him. "I can't hear anything." He looked down at the cell phone in his hand. The glass looked strange and as he looked closer, he could see that it was trembling very slightly. He frowned.

"Marionette…?" Foxy took a cautious step towards her. His ears twitched. Marionette looked up at him fearfully. "D-don't touch me! Please! I-I'm sorry!"

Mike frowned and stared at his phone harder. A tiny crack appeared on the screen.

"For the love of God!" Vincent stuck his fingers in what was left of his ears. "Mike, are you doing that? You have that stupid frequency app or whatever? Well KNOCK IT OFF!"

"It's not me!" Mike said.

"Marionette, are you okay?" Chris moved towards her.

"Hey, ghost? Are you scared?" Jess followed him.

"No, n-no, please!" Marionette curled up and hugged herself, her bottom lip quivered. "I-I don't want to do this! I-I don't want to play this game anymore!" She sobbed.

"STOP GETTING CLOSER TO HER!" Bonnie groaned. "IT'S MAKING IT WORSE!"

"Ghost, you know you're already dead, right…?" Laura said as the ghost children approached Marionette.

Another crack appeared on the surface of Mike's cell phone screen.

"P-please don't…please don't…" Marionette whimpered, covering her face.

"You can't pretend you're alive anymore…" John said, reaching out.

"STOP IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Chica yelled.

Vincent's eyes flickered from pale to a vivid violet. He backed up. "Kids, be careful…"

"You can't live again."

"Yes I can!" Marionette clenched her fists.

A shadow appeared behind the children and Vincent leaned down to her, his eyes glowing bright violet. "No." He hissed. "You can't."

Upon seeing him, Marionette let out a shriek that pierced the crisp night air and destroyed the peaceful night in the town. The animatronics all groaned and covered their ears, Mike's phone shattering into a million tiny shards in his hand, and sparks burst from the telephone poles all across the town. It seemed as if every light in the neighborhood flickered before an eerie darkness swept all through it.

As the noise died down, and the animatronics all opened their eyes and uncovered their ears, they saw Vincent and the ghost children all pinning down a screeching white cluster beneath them. Marionette scooted away from them with wide eyes and Bonnie and Chica helped her stand.

"There, there," Vincent grunted in a not-so-comforting way. "No one's going to…hurt you." He pressed down on the ghost's head, trying to shut it up and keep it still.

"You alright, Mikey?" Foxy asked Mike, helping him brush broken glass off of his clothes.

"Yeaah, I'm all good." Mike said, straightening his cap. "It looks like there's been a black out across town, though." He observed, looking at how the street lights and street lamps had all gone dark. "I wonder how long that's going to last."

"Got him, I got him!" Vincent yelled, raising the murky white shape above his head like a prize catch. While it squirmed and screamed, it seemed to be bound by something. The children clapped and cheered.

"We did it!" Jess beamed.

"Yes you did." Vincent grinned and dropped the ghost into his arms.

"Now what do we do with him?" Chris asked. "This doesn't really look like we're helping him much…" he looked at the way the ghost struggled to break free.

"We'll take him back to the hidden hallway and pay close attention to him." Vincent said. "I know it looks kind of harsh, but this is the easiest way. The other way is to let him go and just wait for him to cause trouble elsewhere. Besides, look at him," Vincent held him out. "He's very unstable. Not violent…just fearful."

"Wait," John frowned. "You mean normal fearful? Or Jeremy Fitzgerald fearful?"

Vincent watched the ghost struggle and cry for a moment. "I'd say about ten to twelve miles past the Jeremy Fitzgerald fear limit."

"That's a pretty scared ghost."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Marionette yelled behind them.

"Nothing, Mary-dear!" Vincent replied in a sing-song voice. The children snickered.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Freddy marched up to them. "You can't just keep a ghost like THAT in a CHILDRENS PLACE!"

Vincent looked from the ghost children around him, to the struggling ghost he held, and then to Freddy again. "Well I mean you haven't run _me_ off or anything." He shrugged. "Besides, I spent a month and a half studying ghost behavior; I think I can handle this little scrap."

"And if he can't, we can!" Chris said, beaming wide.

Just then, several sirens rang out in the distance and the faint flashing of red and blue lights could be seen from the town.

"I KNEW THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA!" Freddy screamed, throwing up his arms.

"Oh no, it's the po-po!" Vincent yelled. "Kids, quick! Take scrappy here to the restaurant!" He threw the strange ghost into the kids' arms. As they quickly soared away, he called after them. "AND NO CHANTEYS!"

"What are the police coming for?" Chica asked, watching the flashing police lights get steadily brighter and the scream of their sirens increased.

"DOESN'T MATTER!" Vincent shoved them all towards the park entrance. "WE'RE LEAVING RIGHT NOW! COME ON!"

They all broke into a run, with Vincent, Mike and Marionette in the lead and burst out of the park.

"Where do we go now?!" Bonnie yelled from the back of the party.

"Mike, we're near your neighborhood, let's just go to your house!" Marionette suggested quickly.

"Good idea." Mike nodded and took the lead, running quickly towards home. He lead them into his neighborhood and down the street, all the street lamps eerily dim due to the black out. As the sound of several police cars got closer to them, Mike turned to the rest of the gang. "It's just up here!" He called, pointing. They were a good seven houses away from his home.

Vincent threw a glance behind them and gritted his teeth. "There's no time!" He yelled. He swung his head from left to right and caught sight of a big black minivan parked in the driveway of a house with children's toys littering the yard. "Quick! In there!" He yelled.

"No!" Mike said. "We're almost home!"

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME!" Freddy bellowed, following Vincent to the minivan.

"No, no, no!" Mike yelled as Foxy picked him up and ran towards the van. "No, no, no!"

Vincent threw open the driver's door with enough force to break any lock there was and flipped the unlock switch. Marionette launched herself into the passenger's seat. Bonnie and Freddy threw back the sliding doors. Freddy took a window seat in the very back, Chica took the middle seat beside him, Bonnie took a seat directly behind Vincent, and Foxy threw Mike in the seat beside him before climbing in beside Chica. Mike and Bonnie closed the sliding doors.

"Now what?!" Marionette asked.

Vincent shuffled through the car, throwing aside a few stuffed animals, children's toys, a few empty soda cans, and a stack of napkins. He frantically threw open the glove compartment, took out a few papers, closed it angrily, and opened just about every other compartment he could find from where he sat. "Aw c'mon!" He pulled down the sun visor over his head and a few dollar bills fell into his lap, along with…

"AHA!" He yelled, holding up several keys. He looked them each over quickly and jammed one into the ignition. With a rumble, the car came to life.

"WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, HURRY IT UP!" Freddy yelled from the back. Red and blue flashing lights were slowly getting brighter and brighter.

"Ohhhhh boyyy…" Mike swallowed hard, frantically strapping on his seat belt and gripping his seat.

Bonnie pointed to him and laughed. "Oh no, we're in a MINIVAN!"

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE TERRIBLE, BONNIE!" Chica yelled.

Looking over his shoulder a few times and waving for Chica to duck down, Vincent slowly backed out of the drive way. "I'm just an average Joe," He hummed. "On my way to get… a cupcake…no need for the police to chase me…" As he drove down the street at an appropriate speed, red and blue lights flashed wildly in the rearview mirror. "See…don't chase me…I'm just…a human…"

"Do you think they're really after _us_?" Foxy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Just then, the front door to the house of the minivan flew open and a woman waved her arms towards the approaching police cars. "HELP! HELP! THEY'RE STEALING MY VAN!" She yelled pointing.  
"They are now!" Vincent said, jamming his foot on the gas pedal.

Mike shrieked and Bonnie cackled as the minivan took off speeding through the neighborhood. Marionette gripped the dashboard, calmly giving Vincent directions on navigating the neighborhood.

"It's because of the snare drum, isn't it?! Freddy wailed. "It's all because of those stupid band kids!"

"No, it's probably because there was a loud screeching coming from the park and all of a sudden the power's out across town!" Foxy told him.

The minivan took a sharp left that swung everyone towards the vehicle's right side and sped down a curving road with woods hugging the street. Vincent looked in the rearview mirror a few times, as if the flashing lights and sirens weren't enough to tell him that the police were still following them. His passengers sat tensely in their seats, with the exception of Mike, who was full on panicking, sweating, shaking and hyperventilating.

"We'll be fine." Chica said, reaching up to pat his shoulder.

"Yeah," Foxy said. "Just take a deep breath and relax, we'll be fine."

Vincent jerked the steering wheel to the left. With a shriek from the tries, the van launched itself to the left and threw the passengers towards the right side of the van. Mike made a high-pitched moaning noise and Bonnie laughed.

Marionette, gripping the dashboard, glanced out the window to a sign whizzing by. "U-um," She cleared her throat. "Vince, I think you're going a little over the speed limit."

"It'll be fine." He said in calmed voice, even though his entire posture was alert and stressed, and he was gripping the wheel tight enough to break it.

Freddy looked out the window and spoke in a falsely cheerful tone. "So, where are we going?"

"Well, I didn't think much of it when I took this road…" Vincent replied, raising his voice over the sirens. "But, this path eventually takes us straight to the city."

"The city?" Six voices asked in synch.

"Jeremy took me there once or twice." Marionette said, turning around to the five in the back. "It's HUGE; they have these GIANT rectangle buildings that go up and up, and they have SOOO many stores and restaurants and places to go hang out…and there are a TON of bright and moving lights. It's crazy."

"Sounds like a real party." Bonnie grinned.

"Sounds like a good place to lose these guys." Foxy jerked his thumb behind them.

"That's actually the problem…" Vincent said. "A big city means a lot of people. A lot of people means more crime. More crime means more police." He winced. "We're probably going to run into more cops in the city than we ever would in our own little town."

"This is why I hate the city." Mike grunted in a strained voice, squeezing his eyes shut. Bonnie smacked his knee and laughed.

Chica turned and glanced behind her. "How come the cops aren't getting any closer to us?"

"We're going as fast as we can, and they're going as fast as they can." Vincent said. "Right now, our only worry would be cops in front of us...which is what's probably going to happen in the city…" He added quietly.

"So you're kind of saying we can relax right now?" Marionette asked.

"I wouldn't." Vincent narrowed his eyes.

"…BOO!" Bonnie grabbed Mike's shoulder suddenly and Mike screamed, causing Bonnie to laugh loudly. Chica rolled her eyes and grumbled.

"We still have to cross the bridge." Vincent told Marionette and she nodded in remembrance.

Instantly, Bonnie stopped laughing. "…Bridge?"

"Yeah," Vincent threw a glance in the rearview mirror at him. "Between our little Quietville and the city, there's a bridge over the river."

He swallowed. "…River?"

Marionette rolled her eyes and pasted a fake smile onto her face. "Bonnie, a river is like a stream, but much, MUCH bigger! Some streams are even four THOUSAND miles long!" She glowed with sarcasm.

"I KNOW WHAT A RIVER IS!" He yelled. Grumbling to himself, he turned and looked out the window, running a paw between his ears.

Freddy, Chica, and Foxy exchanged a look. Grunting, Foxy pressed his feet hard against Bonnie's seat. "A lil' cramped back here, ain't it?"

"Don't look at it as cramped," Chica smiled. "Look at it as a bonding experience; now we know that you smell like sunshine and hugs."

"Oh, yeah, good idea!" Freddy grinned. "And let's not look at it as a police chase, let's look at it as a game of tag! They're it! Ha, ha, ha, HA HA HA! I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN I COULD KILL MYSELF!" He gripped his top hat with a crazed expression.

Chica and Foxy exchanged a look and scooted as far away from Freddy as they could.

"See?" Vincent nodded ahead. "There's the bridge."

With the aid of headlights and the moon, they could all see a large bridge stretching across a huge channel of waving, churning darkness. On the shoreline were a few houses, docks and speed boats, and on the other side of the bridge a chorus of lights of every color sang up to the dark night.

"Oh my God, it's HUGE." Bonnie gasped.

"I know, it looks amazing!" Chica grinned.

"Not the CITY! The RIVER!" He gripped his seat and swung his head from left to right. "Jesus…Vincent, can't you turn around or something?"

"WHAT?" Foxy barked.

"Are you for real?!" Marionette swung her head around to glare at him. "NO we can't TURN AROUND!"

"How about a detour then?" Bonnie coaxed. "I'm sure there's another way to the city around the river."

Vincent tilted the rearview mirror down to give him a look of utmost sarcasm. "It's a damn RIVER."

"God…" Bonnie muttered as they approached the bridge. "You gotta be…" He made a high pitched moaning noise and gripped his seat tightly. As the van jumped onto the bridge and began to ascend over the dark, bottomless water.

"Bonnie are you SCARED?" Chica tilted her head and grinned slightly.

Foxy snorted. "Serves 'em right."

"Hold on, you two." Marionette said, looking from Bonnie to Mike. "This'll be over before you know it. It can't get any worse than this."

"Shit." Vincent grunted.

Marionette faced ahead again to find what he was looking at and her face fell. "Oh God…"

Several police cars were climbing the bridge at full speed from the city, heading straight towards the van. From the looks of things, they'd collide head on with the van and everyone in it.

"We're going to crash into the police?!" Freddy threw up his hands. "THIS IS IT. THIS IS HOW WE DIE!"

"No, it's not." The corner of Vincent's torn lip curled upward. "You guys can swim, yeah?"

"We're all water proof." Marionette looked at her fingertips. "I've gone swimming several times, it's easy." She then frowned. "What are you…?"

"Hold on tight!" With a bit of a smirk, Vincent spun the steering wheel to the left at full force, launching the van over the edge of the bridge and hurling it towards the dark abyss below. "Let's see: I'm a ghost, the robots can swim…what am I forgetting?"

From the back seat, Mike's shriek pierced the air. He and Bonnie were clutching each other and screaming at the top of their voices.

Vincent rolled his eyes. "That's right, he's a _living_ person."

With a loud splash, the van met the river and slowly began to sink. Bonnie and Mike were still screaming.

"Quick!" Vincent said. "Break the windows and climb out! Try to stay out of sight of the police; if they think we're dead people, they won't be able to do much until a helicopter arrives or the sun comes out. Head towards either side of the river, it doesn't matter."

As water crawled up the windows and hugged the van closer, Vincent punched the windshield three times and shattered it. Grabbing Marionette's hand, he climbed out into the water.

"Hang in there, lad." Foxy tore off Mike's seat belt and jammed his hook into a window, tearing out the glass. "Hold your breath."

With a deep breath, Mike was dragged out of the van and under the dark churning water. It was ice cold and nearly took his breath away, but he held on to the air he'd stolen and tried to get his bearings. Straight ahead was the city. Right behind him was the way back home. To his left or to his right was an endless stream of icy blackness. A tight grip on his wrist jerked him through the water, down, down towards the bottom. Instantly, he began to panic. He couldn't see anything, and he was losing air fast. He kicked out at whoever was trying to drown him and lurched for the surface. With a good swung of his foot, he kicked something hard and the grip on his wrist loosened.

He quickly pushed and grabbed for the surface, his lungs close to collapsing. He stretched out his hand to break free…and ended up with a handful of sand. Sand…He'd swum to the bottom of the river instead of the surface. Too terrified to realize how embarrassed he was, he kicked off the bottom of the river and launched himself upward. Reaching desperately for oxygen, he couldn't hold his breath anymore. He opened his mouth and sucked in a lungful of water. Instantly he convulsed as water shot through his throat and tried to act as a poor substitute for air.

When he broke through the surface, he choked and coughed. Water churned all around him, crashing over his head and dragging him under again. He coughed and tried to get a good breath in, but another wave came over him, sending a gallon of water down his throat.

"H-help! Help!" He called out weakly, starting to care less about getting caught by the police and starting to care more about whether or not he'd drown. "Help!" A dark wave fell over him and sent him tumbling through the water. Now he'd really lost all sense of direction. "Help!" He choked through the water, sinking below the surface. Darkness surrounded him on all sides. He couldn't breathe, and was too weak to try and move.

"H…H-help…"

**I think the only thing I really hate about summer is the bugs. Like all the bees, wasps, ants, and those giant yellow grass-hopper/locust things. You know those things? I HATE THOSE THINGS! **


	23. Chapter 23

**Okay, I know I need to end this story soon, but I'm not sure if I want to end it the way I had originally planned anymore. It won't be necessarily warm and fuzzy (people might kill me), but I kind of think it'll wrap it up kinda nice.**

Mike tried to turn on his side. His hands grabbed a purple blanket. It was warm and soft, like the room around him. The ceiling creaked and the air conditioner hummed comfortingly. Strangely, even under the blanket, he felt wet and cold. He tried to adjust the blanket to cover him more. With a shiver, he realized he had no blanket.

"Wakey, wakey…" A voice murmured. "Easy does it, fish."

Mike groaned and opened his eyes. He was lying on his back flat on solid concrete. Three blurry faces were looking down at him.

"Easy does it fish-o." One of the three said.

"_What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor_?" Sang another, causing the prior to laugh.

"Maybe we should take him home?" A girl's voice asked, as Mike drifted back out of consciousness.

* * *

"Oh geez…" Marionette gripped the railing dividing the high and dry sidewalk from the churning torrent of icy darkness. "Come on, Mary-girl," She told herself, her arms shaking with the effort to haul herself to safety. "You weren't built to be…a little…bitch…" She pulled herself over the guard rail and fell on her back, panting. "Good job…me…you did it." She huffed, giving a thumb up to herself. "Yay."

"Hey! Marionette! You okay?"

Marionette didn't even bother to lift her head. "I'm fine, Chica," She swallowed. "I just need to lie down right here for a minute or two."

She heard Chica's footsteps approaching her and soon enough Chica's smiling face appeared over hers. "I found Bonnie, but I think Foxy, Freddy, Mike, and Vince are back on the other side." The electric sound of slower, heavier animatronic steps grew until Bonnie frowned over at Marionette.

"Vincent told us to stay out of sight of the po-po." He said, dripping wet. "That means we have to stay on this side of the river for a while, what do we do?"

"Well…" Marionette tried to push herself to a sitting position, but failed. She instead reached her arms up straight in the air. "Guys I need your arms."

Bonnie and Chica each stretched out an arm and hauled her to her feet. She wobbled on her legs for a moment, and leaned on the guardrail.

"Alright." She wrapped her soaking cloak tighter around herself. "Jeremy took me to the city ONCE…or twice…I can't remember exactly, we spent a lot of time there. This place is HUGE, bigger than any place _you_ guys have been to. It's probably changed a lot in the past twenty years, so it's gonna be a bit of a challenge for me to navigate around here. Also, all the family-owned places probably went out of business…so there goes any chance of people having a positive attitude towards us."

"What do you mean by that?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing, never mind," Marionette took a few wobbly steps in the direction of the city street that was opened to them. She stopped and glared at her feet. "Getting real tired of your shit, legs." She muttered. She went to take a small step forward, but then her legs began to shake and she nearly fell over. With effort, she lunged one leg out forward, nearly doing a split, but standing still and without stumbling. "So that's how you want to play it." Again, she lunged her other leg forward. "Come on, you two." She told Bonnie and Chica, walking in quick and awkward lunges.

Bonnie and Chica exchanged a look before following her.

*LINE BREAK*

"Freddy, are you okay?" Vincent kicked at Freddy's shoulder. The bear animatronic was lying face down on a dock, soaking wet. "Really, man…can you hear me?"

"OF COURSE I CAN HEAR YOU!" Freddy yelled angrily, lifting his head off of the wood.

"Shh- keep it down!" Vincent hissed, throwing a glance towards the several police cars at the top of the bridge. "The cops might hear you!"

Freddy groaned and pushed himself to a sitting position. He squeezed the water out of his bowtie and took off his top hat, wringing out with a scowl. Much unlike the bright and busy lights of the city, this side of the river was laced with docks, a few speedboats, shacks for fishing equipment, some cozy-looking houses a little farther away from the water, and gross, swampy-looking, murky water. Though, the winter air was bitingly icy, and there were no bugs singing in the night.

"I think I saw Bonnie, Chica, and Marionette on the other side. Hopefully, the police didn't see them." Vincent said, helping him up.

"Well good, I'm glad…" Freddy trailed off, looking further down the boardwalk. A large dark shape was rising from the water in a bulky, murky mass. With muddy water splattering around it, it collapsed on the boardwalk, heaving. Freddy stared at it with wide eyes and pointed to it.

Vincent turned around and eyed it cautiously. He took a step towards it, opening his mouth to call out to it, when the mass spoke.

"Either of you seen Mikey?!" It called out.

"It's just Foxy." Vincent told Freddy, who was pushing himself to his feet. Together, they walked over to him and helped him stand. He was a little muddy and dripping wet.

"No, I haven't seen Mike." Freddy told him. "Why? I thought you were swimming with him the whole time."

"I tried!" Foxy looked at him frantically. "I tried to pull him to the surface, but he kept kickin' me! He kept swimmin' down! It was like he was tryin' to kill himself!"

Vincent looked at him uneasily. "That's not uncommon." He said. "When breaking free from a sinking car, some people become incredibly disoriented. They swim down, because they think that's the way to the surface and they end up…"

"You mean he could be _dead_?" Foxy whispered.

* * *

Mike opened his eyes. He was lying on a couch in front of a fire place with a blanket laid across him. He felt incredibly tired, and still a little damp, but he knew he hadn't drowned. He tried to sit up, but was too exhausted, so instead he moaned. He could hear several voices talking in another room, but didn't care enough to try and find out who they were. As long as they weren't trying to sell him on the black market, he figured he was safe.

"Sounds like fish is awake." One of the voices distinctly said; a man's.

"I'll fetch him some tea, you two go and keep him company." Answered another voice; a woman's.

Two figures came around and leaned down to Mike. He recognized them so quickly, he nearly jumped off of the couch.

"Y-you guys!" He gasped, pointing at them. "I-I know you guys!"

"_I know you guys_!" The toy Bonnie squawked in a mocking voice. He laughed, then turned to his partner, the toy Freddy. "What do you think, brother?"

"I say, I think he's gone absolutely loony." He straightened his bowtie with a smirk.

"Fred! Bo!" Cried the woman's voice, and as she approached, Mike saw that it was the toy Chica. "We've had this poor boy in our house for not half an hour and you're already badgering him-I won't have it!" She handed him a steaming mug on a tiny plate. "Here you go, sweetness." She smiled at him.

"Chic, he's a grown boy, he doesn't need you spoon feeding him like that!" Bo told her.

"I am _not_ spoon feeding him, I'm being hospitable!" She countered.

"But…I don't…" Mike rubbed his forehead. "This is _your_ _house_? Y-you _own_ it? You live in the city? Like _people_?"

"A little bit." Chic squinted an eye. "With the new 'owners' we have taking care of us- this is their house, you see- they trust us to take care of things around here when they go out for long periods of time. We're still performers, but, for a different audience."  
"Instead of kids," Fred explained. "We're comedians, usually geared towards adults."

"And no one cares that your robots?" Mike asked.

"Not really, they think programming robots for comedy is a funny idea." Chica told him. "Now drink your tea."

He hesitated before taking a small sip of the steaming tea. It was sweet, and was smooth on his sore throat. "Thanks." He sighed. "W-wait, what time is it?"

"Nearly three in the morning." Bo told him, looking at a clock hanging on the wall.

"Good…" Mike leaned back into the couch, setting the mug on the floor beside him. "Aw geez, the others." He sat up again. "Hey, did you see anyone else in the river or by the river when you found me?"

"No…Why, you were with other people?" Fred frowned at him.

"Y-yeah, a bunch of people." Mike ran his hand through his short hair. "I mean, I don't think they drowned…I don't know if they _can_ drown."

"Well, start from the beginning." Chic told him. "What's your name? How did this happen?"

"Wait," Bo said before Mike could speak. "I want to guess."

"Guess what?" Chic frowned at him. "His name?"

"Sure."

"Why not?" Fred agreed. Together, he and Bo frowned at Mike and rubbed their chins. "Is it Jack?"

"No." Mike frowned at them, looking a bit confused.

"How about John?" Fred raised an eyebrow.

"Is it Eugene?" Chic asked him. "Is your name Eugene?"

"No."

She rubbed her chin and squinted. "Come to think of it, he actually kind of looks like a Bo."  
Bo frowned, then took Mike's face in his hand and frowned deeper. "On what PLANET does he look like a BO?!"

She laughed. "Okay, sorry, I'll guess again…"

"How about Jim?" Fred asked.

Mike shook his head.

"Oh my God, you know who he looks like?" Bo stared at Mike and his eyes grew wide.

"Uh-uh." Fred shook his head. "Who?"

"Sebastian from Chanteys."

Instantly Fred and Chic's faces lit up.

"Oh my gosh you're right, he so does!" Chic beamed and Fred laughed with Bo.

"I do NOT look like Sebastian!" Mike countered, remembering that Sebastian's character was rather comedic; weak and sugary.

"Is that your name?" Chic laughed. "Is your name Sebastian?"

"No!"

"How about Tom?"

"Mm-mm!"

"You look like an average little Joe, don't you?" Fred raised an eyebrow. "Is it Joe? Bob? Sam? Dylan?"

"No!" Mike groaned.

"Maybe it's something like Jordan?" Chic asked. "Or Michael?"

"Don't call me that!"

"What, Michael?" Chic grinned. "Is it Michael?"

"It doesn't matter to me anymore," Bo snorted. "I'm calling him Sebastian forever." He and Fred laughed.

"I don't know!" Mike gripped the sides of his head.

"You don't know if you're name is Michael or not?" Fred threw back his head and laughed.

"It-maybe, I don't know! Most people think my full name is Michael, but all my family ever called me was-

"Mike! Your name is Mike, isn't it!" Chic jumped up with a grin.

"Yes!" Mike waved his arms.

"Wait, let me double check…" Fred held up a little, damp wallet and opened it.

"You took my wallet?" Mike frowned.

Fred ignored him and pulled out his driver's license. After looking it over briefly, he grinned. "You were right Chic, he's Mike Schmidt." He stuffed the license back into the wallet. "Mike Schmidty, what a pity, got lost in the big bad city." Bo laughed at him.

Mike folded his arms, looking hurt. "Bullying me for my name. Thanks guys. It hurts."

"Wait a minute…" Chic snatched the wallet out of his hand and looked at the license for herself. "Mike Schmidt…" She looked up at Fred and Bo, they met her eyes, and it seemed like the same light of realization went off in all of them at once.

"You're Mike Schmidt?!" They asked in synch, staring at Mike with astonished expressions. Bo pulled on his ears.

"As in THE Mike Schmidt? The little one that used to run around all the time at the restaurant?"

"Yeah…" Mike ran his hand through his short hair. "I'm all grown up and stuff." He gave an embarrassed chuckle. "I work at the Fazbear place now, so I've been over this a lot."

"No way!" Chic raised her eyebrows. "Let me guess… you've probably got a great, big house all to yourself!"

Mike nodded, still looking a little embarrassed.

"Ohhh," Chic's smile grew bigger and bigger. "And I bet you have a dog, and a bunch of friends, and a beautiful wife, and a couple kids here and there!"

Mike rubbed his neck and shook his head. "…N-no."

Bo laughed. "Dog? House? Yes. Girlfriend? Whoa, whoa, slow down there. You went from 0-100 a little too quickly."

"You said you worked at the Fazbear place?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow. "I would've loved to see look on Foxy's face when he saw you again."

"It actually took them all a while before they recognized me," Mike said with a little laugh. "I'm the security guard and-

"Oh, okay, that explains enough." Bo said with a chuckle. "I'm sure they hated you for good two or three days, eh?"

"So, what are you doing here, kid?" Fred asked, shoving the bill of Mike's cap down. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

Mike tipped the bill of his cap up. "Well uh…It's a really long story…"

* * *

Marionette wobbled through the brightly lit streets of the city with Chica and Bonnie behind her. Their heads were turning in all directions on their necks, trying to take in every bit of the city they could. Even at this hour, cars were zipping through the streets and people were laughing and singing and talking outside of restaurants and bars carved into strip malls that lined the streets.

Some people laughed and stumbled around. Some girls in short clothes danced and giggled and waved to men passing by. Some people stood around in clusters, smoking cigarettes and other things whilst scowling at everyone around them from the shadows.

Chica waved to a group of teenagers with a friendly smile. They twisted their faces at her, raising their eyebrows and curling their lips. As they passed, they muttered amongst each other about her.

She tugged on Bonnie's arm. "Do I have something on my face? Like, you know, seaweed or something?"

"I don't think you can pick up seaweed from the river," Bonnie raised an eyebrow at her. "But no, you look fine."

They approached a group of young adults standing around outside a bar. They were laughing with bottles and cigarettes clasped loosely in their hands. A woman stumbled over and fell against Bonnie's arm.

"Oh- whoopsy!" She laughed. "Heeeeeeyyyyy!"

"Uh, hey?" Bonnie forced a half smile on his face. "Nice to meet you too?"

She smelled sour, and was drooling, but slapped him on the arm and laughed. "Joshua, when did you get so hairy?" She laughed.

Marionette turned around and frowned. "Hey, beat it!" She pulled the woman off of Bonnie and she fell on the ground. Her friends only laughed at her and she laughed with them. Marionette jerked her head forward. "Come on, you two."

"The people here are…different." Chica told her, nervously rubbing her wings.

"This is the city life." Marionette told them. "People here stay up late, party all night. Some work, some don't." She shrugged. "This isn't exactly the best neighborhood to be in at this hour. You'll run into all sorts of people. Drunks, drug addicts, gangs, college students out for a party instead of in trying to study." She threw a glance back at them. "I've got my cloak on, but not many people would recognize me, even with it off. People probably just think you're furries."

"Furries?" Bonnie and Chica echoed in synch. Bonnie looked at his arms. "I guess I am pretty furry, but what's that supposed to mean?"

"Furries are humans who dress up in big animal costumes." Marionette explained briefly.

"Why?" Bonnie curled his lip.

"To dance?" Marionette rubbed her forehead. "Other things…? The explanation I got was pretty vague." She lead them across a crosswalk at a fairly busy intersection and tilted her head back to the high buildings she was approaching. "This is where the hospitals are."

"Whoa…" Chica echoed, tilting her head back to look at the massive buildings that stretched up higher than she'd ever seen. "I'd never thought they'd looked like that before."

"Not that I don't trust you, Marionette," Bonnie scratched his head, looking around. "But where the hell are we going?"

"Not one place in particular," Marionette lead them through the streets skirting the complex of hospital buildings, until they were walking through a darker area of town. The bulk of shops and restaurants along this street were closed…or out of business. It was significantly quieter here, more welcoming even though no one was here. The signs on the stores had gentler names and windows that offered pleasing views of what the shops held inside. "There are a few spots I was taken to frequently on my trips into the city; little cafes and ice cream shops that stayed open stupidly late for teenagers to relax or study at after school, work, or sports practice." She looked into the window of something that looked like it might have been a café. There were no tables, the counter was empty, even the sign above the door was stripped of anything welcoming. "Most of them were family-owned. They've probably all gone out of business." As she stopped and took her hood off to look closer at the café, the door of a shop farther down the road opened and a person walked out. They stopped suddenly.

"Bless my soul, is that Marry O'Nette?"

"How could I let this happen?! I had 'im right there in my hand….And I let him just swim away! And what of his body?! Oh, God…it's floating down the river somewhere right now, all alone…drifting out to sea…" Foxy paced back and forth on the docks miserably. He fell on his knees and looked at the sky. "Send me to hell, already!" He moaned.

Freddy threw his palm to his forehead. Vincent stared at him. "Is he always this dramatic?" he muttered.

"Only when it comes to that kid." Freddy grumbled back, shaking his head.

"That '_kid'_ WAS MY WHOLE LIFE!" Foxy shook Freddy's shoulders.

"Not for a whole twenty years of it." Vincent coughed.

Foxy swung his muzzle around to face him and his blue eye flashed.

"Coughing. I was coughing." Vincent hacked into his arm.

"The point of the matter is that Mike…" Freddy swallowed. "Quite possibly, probably, could be dead."

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck and looked out across the river. He tightened his jaw. "…Yeah. Probably."

Foxy stumbled backwards and ran his paw and his hook over his head. He stared at the ground with a wide eye. Freddy reached out and patted his shoulder.

"It's not your fault." He sighed with a heavy voice.

"It's YOUR fault, isn't it?!" Foxy snarled, rounding on Vincent. "If you hadn't tried crossing that damn river, none of this would've ever happened! If YOU hadn't been going after that stupid ghost, we would've have had to steal that car!"

Vincent blinked and half frowned. "It's not like I-

"HE HAD HIS WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HIM!" Foxy roared, grabbing his shoulders. "AND YOU TOOK IT FROM HIM! YOU TOOK HIM FROM US! FROM _ME_!"

A light flickered on inside one of the houses on the shore. Freddy winced and tried pulling Foxy away from Vincent. "C'mon, don't do this now, we can yell at him back at the restaurant!" He hissed.

"He was just a kid!" Foxy sobbed. "I tried to keep him as safe as I could when he was a little lad, I panicked for twenty damn years when he vanished off the face of the earth, and now, when I think he can finally stand on his own two feet, YOU have to go off AND DROWN HIM!"

"FOXY. SHUT. UP." Freddy groaned, shaking him by the shoulders. "I blame Vincent too, but we can blame him better at the restaurant."

"It's not like I did this…on purpose!" Vincent countered.

"No, I guess not, but it seems like a classic 'accident' for _someone_ _like_ _YOU_." Foxy spat.

Vincent blinked. His eyes widened. Even Freddy paused for a moment.

"Listen to me!" Freddy yelled. "It doesn't matter right now! You two need to shut up before someone from one of these houses comes out and-

"Freddy?" A soft little voice peeped from Freddy's right. He tightened his jaw and turned. There, standing in the back doorway of the house with the lone light on, was a little boy clad in blue pajamas. He had a worn stuffed puppy dog in his arm.

"Look. What. You. Did." Freddy spat at Foxy quietly through furiously gritted teeth. He then turned to the child and smiled widely. "What are you doing up so late at night?"

"I heard someone yelling, and I thought my mom and step dad might be home." The boy smiled. "They're out of town. My sister is babysitting me. Shh." He pointed up to the second floor of the house. "She's asleep."

"Uh-huh," Freddy nodded. "And you should be too, little boys like you need sleep to go big and strong."

The child crossed his muggy backyard and reached up to unlatch the fence that led to the docks.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," Freddy shook his head. "Little boy, don't…"

But it was too late; the child was running across the wooden docks over to them. He ran up and jumped up to Freddy. "Wow! Hi, Freddy! And Foxy's here too?" His eyes widened, though Foxy still looked miserable. The boy suddenly hid behind Freddy's leg as he looked at Vincent. "…Who's…that…?"

"Stay away from 'em, kid, he might throw ye in the river." Foxy snapped.

"Okay, that's enough." Freddy scooped up the boy, as Vincent's eyes flashed. "Listen, kiddo," he told the child. "Our friends are on the other side of this river, and…our…legs are too weak to carry us across that bridge." Freddy gestured to the bridge where police were gathered and a helicopter was shining a ray of ominous light into the black river. "Do you know any other bridges or ways to get across the river?"

As the boy tapped his chin and tried to think of ways across the river, Foxy folded his arms, grieving and brooding. It was all Vincent's fault. It Vincent hadn't tried to catch a stupid ghost, Mike would still be alive and happy. As a matter of fact, if Vincent's ghost hadn't even returned, none of this would've ever happened. It's not like Foxy would care, up until a few months ago, they still hated him. But, really, did it matter whose fault it was? Mike was gone…forever. Foxy's bottom lip quivered. All that was left of him was memories…and even, one day, those would fade until he had completely vanished from this world.

Softly, slowly, the song of music drifted into his ears. Gentle notes with an upbeat rhythm, one he'd heard before. He lifted his head. "Who's got it?"

"Who's got what?" Freddy asked. The little boy in his arms stopped talking.

Foxy swung his head around to look at them all. None of them seemed to be hearing the music box melody. He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing, keep talking." He folded his arms again and looked at the wooden dock under his feet.

Slowly, the wood began to melt away, turning into water that hugged his ankles. He shook his head and looked up. Freddy, the child, and Vincent had vanished. The world around him had transformed. The night sky was no longer navy with white glitter sprinkled across it. It was black, with a red, glowing grid across it. The light from the grid illuminated the darkness enough so that Foxy could see stiff shapes outlined around him. The ground had vanished away completely to the shallow water. The houses lost their detail, but not their shape. They were structures without paint, looking just like black, sculptures. He looked back at the river. It was darker than the water around his ankles- the difference between the level ground and the endless chasm of water. The city was like the houses. There were no lights, only structures and their shadows. It was like a maze. Even the atmosphere was different; it wasn't the whispering openness of the night. It was confined, and utterly silent, other than the lapping of water around him.

"Where the hell…?"

He blinked, and he was back on the docks. Freddy, Vincent, and the little boy were staring at him with concern.

"Foxy, are you okay?" Freddy asked. The enunciated tone of his voice indicated that he had asked the question more than once.

"I'm…fine…" Foxy blinked.

"Here," Vincent patted his shoulder. "Maybe you should sit down, you _are_ under a lot of grief…"

Foxy didn't protest and sat down on the dock. "Maybe I should…" I rubbed his forehead.

"What does grief mean…?" the little boy's voice faded away and became muffled.

Foxy was sitting in shallow water, in the strange world around him. This time, there was a school of koi fish in the water, swimming around him. He jumped up to his feet and they swam away in a straight forward line.

As he stumbled to his feet, the fish and the world around him vanished again and he was back on the docks. "What's going on…" he muttered to himself.

* * *

"So, hold on, let me get this straight," Bo held up a finger and shook his head. "Vincent came back to the restaurant."

"Got mutilated in the old Springtrap suit," Fred elaborated.

"Possessed the suit with his ghost," Bo added.

"Cleaned out his body,"

"Is back to his old, psycho-free self, because he's dead,"

"Takes the ghost-kids on expeditions to explore the world and learn more about ghosts,"

"Tried to catch a ghost,"

"Ended up causing a black out across Quietville,"

"Stole a van to avoid the police,"

"Drove said van off of the Big-Little Bridge,"

"Everyone inside jumped ship,"

"And you ended up with us in the city?" They finished together.

Mike nodded, taking a sip from the third mug of hot tea Chic had given him. "That about sums it up." As he sat up, Chic pushed a plate of hot, fresh, chocolate chip cookies under his nose and rested it on his lap. His eyes grew wide and he gasped in joyous surprise.

"Will you _stop_ feeding that boy?!" Bo threw up his hand at her.

"He'll be so fat by the time he leaves we'll have to roll 'em out the door!" Fred added.

"Oh, zip it, you two!" Chic defended herself. "It's not often we get a guest to spoil. And besides, you didn't think I wasn't going to spoil little Mike, did you?" She patted Mike on the head. "I can make you brownies after those cookies."

"Thi' I' be'er tha' gra'ma' hou'." Mike said through a mouthful of cookie.

"What?" Fred asked.

Mike swallowed. "I said this is better than grandma's house." He shrugged. "Then again I never saw my grandma much."

"Don't you have two sets of grandparents?" Bo scratched his forehead. "Grandparents from your dad and grandparents from your mom, right?"

"I guess," Mike swallowed another cookie. "But my mom's dad died before I was born, and her mom lived in another state."

"What about your dad's parents."

"Mom always said that dad was like my turtle," He stuffed another cookie into his mouth. "He ran away and won't ever come back."

"Your _mom_ said that?" Fred half laughed, but it was out of surprise.

Mike laughed. "Yeah, Mama Schmidt wasn't the best mom in the world." He shrugged. "I guess that's why I came over to spend time with you guys every day. You were like my only family." He ate another cookie.

Fred and Bo exchanged somewhat touched look. "Really?" They asked in synch.

"Well, yeah, all I had besides you was my mom, and she was always out with some dude." He didn't seem too fazed by it. He laughed again. "You know, come to think of it, that's probably why I had such awful teenage years."

"You had bad teenage years?" Chic asked, sitting in a blue cloth recliner.

"Well, duh," Mike chuckled. "I was a _teenager_. I got bullied a lot, went through adolescence, and tried to navigate through high school without a clue what I wanted to do with my life. And you guys were the only people I felt like I could talk to; but you weren't there anymore. And, I was growing up and debating whether you guys were real at all or it was just all in my head as a kid. When kids at school told their stories of things they did with their brothers and sisters and family, I only had stories of you guys. So I'd lie and just tell the story as if you guys were my cousins or some sort of other family." He rubbed the back of his neck with a laugh. "I actually didn't keep track of who was who, and it confused a lot of the kids I told the stories to." He looked up from his plate of cookies after he realized no one was laughing with him.

Fred, Bo, and Chic were all staring at him with terribly sympathetic expressions. "…What?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"That's awful!" Chic said. "We're sorry you had to go through that!"

"W-what?" Mike's ears went red with embarrassment. "No, it's fine, it was just my life." He laughed a little nervously. "Really, guys it's not your fault or anything." He swallowed another cookie. "Really, I should be trying to figure out where the others are. They're probably pitching a fit wondering where I am. Well, Foxy will be, at least."

"Okay, so let's see," Fred rubbed his chin. "They're probably in the city somewhere."

"So," Bo added. "Where would I go if I was-

"Waaaaaaaaaiiiiit!" Mike dropped a cookie and his eyes swelled big. "I don't NEED to wonder! I can just look around from here!" He stood up and handed the empty plate of cookies back to Chic, setting his tea down on the coffee table.

Fred and Bo frowned and looked at each other. "What?"

"I've got this…" He pointed to his eyes. "I can look really far away and it…it's hard to explain. Follow me." he motioned for them to follow him out the door.

The three of them looked at each other, stood up and briskly followed him out into the city.

* * *

"Who's this?" Marionette asked the mysterious person. She didn't recognize their voice. The person was carrying a crate in his arms.

"It's me, Marvin!" The person briskly walked up to her with a grin on his face. As he got closer, the three could see that he was a man, probably in his mid-forties, with slowly graying brown hair, a slightly crooked nose, and a warm smile. "Well if it isn't Jeremy's gal- oh," He shook his head with a laugh. "I mean Jeremy's _friend_! My bad!"

"_Marvin_?" Marionette gasped. "You-what happened to you?"

He laughed harder. "Twenty years did a little damage on me, eh? But you're still pretty as a doll, just like it was yesterday!"

"Um…Who is this?" Bonnie pointed to the man.

"Guys, this is Marvin. His parents own the ice cream parlor down there. He's a real good friend of Vince's, and we used to hang out with him all the time down there." Marionette explained.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there," Marvin laughed. "Ma and Pa _used_ to own the parlor, bless their souls…"

"They died?" Marionette blinked in surprise.

He nodded a little grimly. "Passed on in their sleep. As for being good friends with ol' Vince…" He sighed. "He disappeared ever since those poor kids went missing. Jeremy did too…" his shoulders drooped as he looked at her. "I'm sorry about him, truly."

Marionette nodded. "I'm working through it." She bit her lip. "But uh, you should know, Vince kicked the bucket a few months ago."

Greif struck suddenly in the man's eyes. "Oh…I uh…I'm sorry. Really…"

She patted his shoulder. "It's okay, he, uh…he went really peacefully, actually." Bonnie and Chica exchanged a frowning glance, but said nothing.

Marvin hung his head and nodded, and then he shook his head and looked up at them with a slightly pained smile. "It's alright. He was a really lively guy, I'm sure he had a great life."

"Anyway, I assume you own the Sugar Cone now?" Marionette crossed her arms, glancing down to the old ice cream parlor.

Marvin gave another chuckle. "Actually, I just closed her down for good." He shrugged and jerked his head down towards the building. "Come on in, I'll tell you inside." He headed down the sidewalk and the animatronics followed him. Bonnie held the door for the man and flicked on the light. The counter was empty, the paint on the walls was faded. Behind the counter, old machines for making soft serve ice cream treats were still and empty.

Marvin set down his crate down on the counter and motioned for them all to sit at a booth by the window. Bonnie and Chica slid in beside each other on one side and Marionette and Marvin sat across from them.

"So, why are you closing down the Sugar Cone?" Marionette asked.

"Two things, really; business was slow and I got a job in another state." Marvin explained. "It was becoming too much of hassle to work the shop on my own and…well, no one wanted to help me run it. I applied for a job in a fancy hotel and they accepted me." He shrugged. "It's not much, but it'd be easier for me living off of that than what I was struggling with trying to run the shop."

Marionette nodded. "Shame. I really loved this place."

He laughed. "Yeah, me too. So tell me, what brings you three into the city?" He grinned at Chica and Bonnie. "This little doll would sneak out all the time, but you two are pretty new around here, aren't you?"

Chica nodded with a smile. "Vi-I mean, our friend drove us off of the bridge and we swam over here to the city."

Marvin blinked, then burst out laughing. "That's hilarious!"

Bonnie and Chica chuckled nervously. "N-no, seriously," Bonnie said. "We were in a van with Freddy, Foxy, and Mike. The driver drove us straight off a bridge. We're trying to find them."

"Mike?" Marvin echoed. He turned to Marionette. "You mean that little pirate-boy who'd run around-?"

"Yes, yes," Marionette nodded, causing Marvin to howl with laugher, banging his fist on the table. "He's the security guard."

"WOW." Marvin grinned at Bonnie and Chica. "He's a _fantastic_ security guard, lemme tell ya!"

The door swung open and someone fell on the floor. Marvin swung his head around. "Who's that?"

Three more figures entered the building. Twin voices threw back their heads and laughed, while a woman's voice gasped. "Oh, you two are _awful_! He just slipped and fell down!"

"Serves 'em right!"

"Dragging us around town at this hour!"

"Wait a minute," Bonnie sat up. "Is that…?"

** I really didn't want to end this chapter here, but if I finished it the way I wanted to, it would've been kind of ridiculously long and everyone would be like "Ugh, when is this chapter going to be over already?" Also, along with To Tomorrow's prequel that I'm working on, my friend and I are working on a fan fiction of a book (it's more like a book series), but I'll explain more about that much, much later.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Summer is already halfway over and words cannot describe how much I do not want it to end. I'm really enjoying the lack of anxiety and the large amounts of pools and beaches. I don't know what it is, but whenever I'm swimming (usually laps in a pool), I can think perfectly.**

Foxy ran his hands over his head again. "What's goin' on…" He muttered again. He closed both of his eyes, and when he opened them again, there were fish circling around his ankles. He blinked again, and they were gone.

"Well, thank you, Thomas, you've been a very big help," Freddy was saying, setting down the child and urging him in the direction of his home. "You should be off to bed now, you need your sleep."

"But …I'm…not…tired…" The little boy yawned, his eyelids were drooping. "I wanna…play in the band…"

"I'm sorry, maybe another day?" Freddy patted his shoulder. "Come on now, I'll walk you home." He took the little boy's tiny hand in his big round paw and began leading him back across the docks towards his home. He shot a look behind him to Vincent as he did.

Vincent nodded and turned to Foxy. "According to the boy, there's a speedboat belonging to his neighbor down there." He jerked his head a little ways down the docks. "It's got a specific look about it, a, uhhh…certain set of stripes on the side…" He trailed off, frowning. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Foxy closed the eye hidden behind his patch. When he opened it again, he could see the fish. In his other eye, he was looking at Vincent on the docks. Through his other eye, he watched the fish take off in a straight line down the docks in the direction opposite to the police-covered bridge.

"Won't need a boat. Follow me." He started running forward, following the fish along the docks

"Hey…wait!" Vincent paused in confusion before racing after him.

* * *

"Well, lookie, lookie what we have here!" Bonnie yelled, jumping out of the booth with a grin on his face. Chica gasped and beamed.

"Lookie, lookie, indeed!" Bon and Fred said in synch, shoving past Mike and running over to hug and greet the two.

"Always a pleasure to see some of the old family!" Bonnie clapped his toy look-alike on the shoulder.

"Oh, it's been so long since we've seen you!" Chica yelled, giving Fred a tight hug and then turning to Chic to do the same.

Marionette stood up from the table and pulled Mike aside, looking at him with surprise. "How did you find…" She glanced behind him at the warm and joyous reunion. "_Them_?"

Chic suddenly stared at Marionette. She nudged Fred and Bo and they too froze in their places to stare at her.

"Good _night_…!" Fred gasped.

"Great _day_…!" Bon gasped.

Marionette's rosy cheeks glowed redder. She smiled at them. "H-hey guys, been a while, hasn't it?"

Chic ran over and gave her a bear hug. "We thought that you…"

"Could've sworn…" Fred patted her on the shoulder.

"Bonnie and Freddy told us but…" Bon shook his head.

Marionette shrugged and held the clasp on her cloak. "I know…I guess I was a bit surprised myself, when I first woke up."

"What…what's going on here?" Marvin slowly stood up, looking very much confused. He frowned at Chic, Bon, and Fred. "Are _all_ of you out here running around tonight?!"

"No," Marionette laughed. "It's, really a lot to explain."

"But, come on, we have to hurry." Mike tugged on her arm. "I know how to find the others."

"Well then let's get going." Bonnie threw a glance out the window. "We haven't got all night, and God knows what time it is."

"He's right." Bon and Fred said, opening the door.

"Sorry to be leaving so soon, Marv." Marionette shrugged at the man.

He only chuckled in response. "It's nothing. Glad I could help reunite you all." He picked up his crate off of the counter as the animatronics all followed Mike out of the deserted parlor.

Marionette followed Mike out the door as he set off at a brisk pace through the city, flanked by Bon and Fred. "Where are we going?"

"Right now, we're going back to the river side." Fred said to her.

"That's where Eagle-Eye over here says he last saw the others." Bon explained, jerking his head in Mike's direction.

Mike stopped suddenly, causing Bonnie to run right into him and knock him to the ground. "Ow…" Mike grunted.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Bonnie yelled, climbing to his feet angrily.

"Sorry, I just," Mike shook his head. "I don't see them anymore."

"What?" Chic frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Check again." Marionette said. "Look all up and down the other side."

"Alright…" Mike turned his head again and threw his vision through the unfamiliar twists and turns of the city out towards the river side.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Freddy panted to Vincent as they ran across the docks along the swampy shore. Since Foxy had broken off into a run without any warning, it'd taken Freddy a while to catch up.

"No idea," Vincent shook his head. "He just started running and-ˮ

Foxy stopped in his tracks, causing Vincent to stumble and Freddy to slip and fall on his back. He snapped his crimson head to the direction across the river.

"We'll cross here." He said, jumping into the water.

"WHAT?" Freddy lifted his head. "Are you kidding me?! Why didn't we just cross where we were before?!"

"I think I know," Vincent said, slipping into the water as Foxy's head disappeared beneath the icy blackness. "Before, we were far enough away so that they wouldn't see us on the docks, but would be able to catch us if we started swimming across. Now, we have the illusion of the night to hide us. We're far enough away where the dark of the night hides us easy." His head disappeared underwater as he started swimming against the river current towards the city.

Freddy clenched his fists and growled. He then sighed and climbed into the water. "This is actually the best option versus stealing a speedboat, but I'm still not happy."

* * *

"I can't find them anywhere!" Mike said, rubbing his forehead. "I even looked around the river bend!"

"They wouldn't have gone home, would they?" Chic asked.

"What, Foxy leaving Mike alone in the unknown city?" Bonnie snorted. "That's likely."

"He's got a point." Bon and Fred each raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, but then where are they _now_?" Marionette asked. "They're not on the other side, but they were there just a few minutes ago. And that doesn't make sense unless-

"They're in the RIVERRRRRR!" Mike started running again through the city with the others just behind him, Bonnie grumbling and following him with much less enthusiasm.

Foxy hauled himself out of the river and swung himself over the railing with ease. Vincent reached his hand out to grab at the railing and held on tight. Freddy grabbed on to his other hand and together they helped each other onto the other side. When they turned to follow Foxy, he was way ahead of them, already taking off into the city.

"Hey, wait up!"

* * *

"Okay, I saw them this way…" Mike was telling himself. "I'm pretty sure if we make this turn here, it's a shortcut." He made a sharp turn around a café and ran straight into Foxy. Thankfully, everyone else was able to see the accident and stop before causing a massive pile up.

"Oww…" Mike groaned, his face in his hands.

"OOohhhggg…" Foxy rubbed his forehead.

"Yikes." Bon and Fred cringed.

"Oh, Mike, that looks like it hurt, are you okay?" Marionette asked, reaching out to him.

"Mike?" Foxy's head lifted sharply. He threw his arms around Mike before Marionette could touch him and clutched him so tight, the young man looked like he might suffocate. "YOU'RE ALIVE!" Foxy cried. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

"I called it." Bonnie gave a laugh and elbowed Chica. "I told you he'd be having a panic attack." She only rolled her eyes at him.

"Why would you think I was dead?" Mike asked in a strained voice.

"BECAUSE!" Foxy groaned. "BECAUSE YOU KEPT SWIMMING DOWN AND I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND AND VINCENT TOLD ME YOU WOULD DIE AND THEN I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

"I didn't say he would DIE!" Vincent defended himself. "I said most people become DISORIENTED and end up swimming to the bottom of the river instead of the top…and drown. But I never said that Mike was dead, I just said it was _probable_."

Bonnie frowned and held out his hands. "Why would you swim _down_?!"

"I thought I was swimming up!" Mike half-shouted, half-squeaked.

"I told you!" Vincent groaned. "People become disoriented! It's very tragic."

"Foxy…I …can't…breathe…" Mike choked.

"Hm?" Foxy blinked and let go of him suddenly with a half chuckle. "Oh…s-sorry, lad. Guess I got carried away there."

"When don't you?" Freddy shook his head.

"Good to see you Fred-bear." Fred and Bo waved in synch to Freddy, who gave them a tired smile and wave in return.

"Good to see you, too."

Vincent blinked and looked at the newcomers. "Fred? Bo? Chic? Is that _you_ guys?"

They narrowed their eyes slightly at him. Chic gave a bit of a forced smile. "Is that you, Vincent?"

He felt their uneasy tension towards him and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. "Yeah, uh…it's me."

"So what are _you_ three doing out hanging around the city at this hour?" Freddy asked, folding his arms at the three.

"Well if it weren't for _us_ _three_," Fred crossed his arms and mirrored his expression.

"Little Mike here would've drowned in the river." Bo raised his eyebrows.

"Y'must be freezin'." Foxy said, hugging his arms around Mike, again a little tighter than he realized.

"No, actually." Mike said with a bit of a shrug. "They took me to their house and gave me tea and cookies."

"Don't worry, we can give you hot chocolate and cake when we get back to the restaurant." Foxy promised, as though he hadn't heard a word Mike said.

"Oh, _brother_." Fred and Bo rolled their eyes.

"Wait, you guys own a _house_?" Bonnie frowned at them.

"Sort of." Fred said.

"It's kind of our boss's house." Bo said.

"But we've also been considered our boss's family since…a really long time ago." Chic explained. "So, technically, it's our house."

"Wait…boss?" Chica asked. "You all work? What do you do?"

"Comedy." Bo and Fred said.

"Stand up comedy." Chic elaborated. "Mostly for adult audiences."

Bonnie held up his paw and leaned towards Chica to whisper. "That means _porn_."

Chic narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No, it just means comedy that most kids won't understand. Think about what children would find more humorous: relatable standup comedy about the life of the average adult or fart jokes."

"Good point." Chica nodded and Bonnie shrugged in agreement.

"Listen, guys, I hate to speed things along," Freddy held out his paws. "But do any of you know what time it is?"

They all exchanged looks amongst each other. None of them had a watch on their wrist. Mike pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Not only was it wet, he'd forgotten that it had been shattered to pieces by the screaming ghost.

"We've got to get back to Quietville before the sun comes up, and it took us forty-five minutes to drive here at full speed." Freddy told them.

"We can drive you in the family's van." Chic offered.

"What about the bridge?" Foxy asked, jerking his muzzle in the direction of the police-covered arch. In the darkness, an ominous machine lifted a water-filled SUV from the river. "It'll most likely be blocked off."

"There's another bridge across the river." Bo said reassuringly.

"Three, to be exact." Fred added.

"Built just in case something like this happened to one of the bridges." Bo frowned. "Well, maybe not exactly _this_, but in case of some sort of problem, there's always got to be a back up way to cross."

"It's a busy city. People gotta find ways to get across the river." Fred nodded.

"Will we all fit in the van?" Bonnie frowned. "We filled up all seven seats in the SUV."

"There's seven of you?" Chic asked. "You'll fit. There's eight seats in the van, not counting the trunk space behind the back seats."

"Big van." Bonnie raised his eyebrows with a nod.

"Boss has a lot of kids." Chic explained. "Don't you fret, I'll be able to drive you all back to the restaurant before dawn." She smiled at Bo and Fred. "Looks like you two are sitting this one out."

They shrugged. Bo smiled at them. "We'll just go back to the house. But it was good seeing you all again."

"Yeah, come visit again sometime." Fred added as they began to walk away.

"But, kiddo," Bo looked at Mike. "Try not to kill yourself again, eh?"

Mike flushed and half smiled. "I'll do my best."

Fred shoved Bo's shoulder. "What're you talkin' about? I'd like to see Mike _try_ and do anything slightly dangerous so long as Foxy's there."

The two shared a laugh that was almost identical to each other and walked off. Their words suddenly reached Foxy's arms and he finally let go of Mike.

"Ah, sorry laddie! Didn't mean to have such a tight grip on ye!" He said with a half chuckle. "Y'alright?"

"I can BREATHE!" Mike sucked in a deep breath of air and Bonnie laughed.

Chic waved her hand for them to follow her. "Come on, you seven, best not waste any time!"

"Hey," Marionette fell in step beside her. "If your boss and his family are out of the house, how come their family van is still there?"

"They're on vacation in the Florida Keys." Chic explained, leading them back to the house she occupied. "They took a taxi to the airport and they're using a rental while they're there."

"That's nice." Marionette half smiled. Behind her, Mike and Foxy were talking eagerly.

"How'd you know where to find us?" Mike asked him. "I stretched my vision to search for you guys. I could see you all the way across the river."

"Funny thing, really." Foxy scratched the back of his neck with his hook. "It's this…I saw this…place. I dunno how I can do it, but I can see it in this eye." He pointed to his eye that was covered with the black patch.

"I didn't know you could see anything out of that eye." Mike raised his eyebrows.

"_Really_?" Foxy tipped up the patch to reveal his other eye. "Mikey, you've known me for twenty years an' y'didn't know that!"

Mike blinked in surprise. "I don't think I've ever actually seen that eye before."

Foxy narrowed both of his eyes. "Lad, I'm pretty sure I've shown you sometime before."

"I don't think so."

"Nay, I think so."

"Mmmm…I don't know…" Mike squinted, as if trying to remember, and shook his head. "Anyway, this 'place' you see- can you see it right now?"

"Nope. Went away after I found ya." Foxy said, tipping his patch back over his eye.

"What does it look like?"

"Dark. There's water, and fish." Foxy rubbed his red-furred chin. "Wasn't really deep water, but deep enough for the fish to swim in. They led me to ya."

Vincent, just behind them, scratched his forehead. "You know, I don't think we should be seeing Moxie anymore…"

"What?" Foxy barked.

"Why not?" Mike asked.

"Every time you two split up after being Moxie, something weird happens to one of you. What if one day we just can't separate your souls anymore?"

Foxy and Mike exchanged a look. Mike shrugged. Foxy gave a half smile. "Don't think either of us would mind it much." Mike nodded in agreement.

Vincent blinked at them. He frowned slowly. "You _do_ realize that everything Moxie does is technically you two doing the exact same thing together, right?"

"Yep." They said in synch.

"Everything."

"Uh-huh."

" g." Vincent said slowly.

Mike and Foxy exchanged another look at each other. Foxy raised an eyebrow at him and he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. Foxy snorted and rolled his eye. "Humans."

Vincent nodded. "Yeah. So imagine Moxie goes on a date with a girl."

Mike and Foxy narrowed their eyes slowly at each other.

"Imagine Moxie kisses said girl."

The two shook their heads at each other and wrinkled their noses.

"Yeah. Think about that." Vincent nodded to them. "Long and hard."

"But, I don't know if Moxie would ever want to do something like that." Mike tilted his head. "You don't really feel separated,"

"But y'aren't really alone, either." Foxy gave a nod.

"So," Mike continued. "You wouldn't feel the need for another person's company. And you wouldn't worry TOO much about doing things as separate people, because you're kind of not two separate people."

Vincent stared at them with big eyes. Behind him, Chica, Bonnie, and Freddy had stopped talking and were staring at the two with the same expression.

"_Why_ have you never told me this before?!" Vincent threw up his hands. "I should've written that down!"

"Gaaaaaaaaaayyyy." Bonnie whispered to Chica with a laugh. She rolled her eyes at him and elbowed his side, but Foxy and Mike were laughing.

Freddy wrinkled his nose. "That's weird. Vincent what do you think about it?"

"I don't know." Vincent said, his voice filled with scientific amazement. "I kind of want to try something, but I don't know if it'll be a good idea to merge their souls again."  
"Wait, _what_?" Chic paused in her conversation with Marionette and shot a glance around to them.

Chica and Bonnie ground. Freddy gripped the fuzz on his head in his fists and yelled quickly, "Foxy can merge his soul with Mike's to make them into one and they turn into this big old guy named Moxie! There! Done!"

"It'd be better to show her." Mike grinned.

"Someone catch me." Foxy chuckled. Right after he'd finished his sentence, he was falling backwards and Moxie was growing in Mike's place. Bonnie lunged forward and caught Foxy's unmoving body, grumbling and carrying him over his shoulder.

Chic did a quadruple-take and gasped loudly. "Oh my goodness! He's a big, strong _man_!"

"THAT'S WHAT I JUST SAID!" Freddy threw up his arms and clenched his jaws to hold back a scream.

Moxie laughed. "Chill it out, Fazbear."

"I hate you so much." Freddy glowered at him. "You're just that one person that _everyone_ just _loves_-well I don't and I just…" He made a disgusted face.

Moxie grinned and shrugged. "That's okay, not everyone has good taste."

"Moxie, do me a favor," Vince started, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, Vince?"

"No, no, no! Don't do him any favors!" Freddy growled, clenching his fists.

"Stay merged like that until the end of Mike's shift."

"What?!" Freddy yelled.

"No problem." Moxie grinned, an easy look on his face.

Bonnie and Chica exchanged a look. Bonnie rubbed his thumb and his index finger together thoughtfully. "See it's just… the little things he does that make him weird to me."

"I don't see it." Chica shook her head with a smile. "He seems a-okay to me."

Chica kept throwing glances back to Moxie, seeming just a bit more impressed each time she looked at him. She nearly ran into a street light pole. "How long has this been going on?" She murmured to Marionette.

"About a month or two ago?" Marionette pulled the cloak tighter around her.

Chic threw another glance back at Moxie. "I don't know how I feel about it." She said quietly.

"Neither do the rest of us, but Mike and Foxy seem okay with it…so I guess we just don't question it." Marionette looked around as Chic lead them back to her house. She'd been so busy trying to navigate through the changed city and reunite the group, she hadn't paid much attention to the looks of the city itself. Now, Chic was leading them through the quieter, safer parts of the town where people lived in apartments and little houses on the fine line of the city itself and the suburbs that skirted it. There weren't many lights on and so far only one little car, an old, run down Honda, had passed them. The biting winter air and snow was starting to decrease, Marionette noticed. "Spring's almost here." She muttered.

Chic nodded. "And with spring comes summer and a whole new season of opportunity."

A chilling breeze blew through and filled Marionette's cloak."It can't get here any sooner."

* * *

The ride across town was quick at first. Chica, Bonnie, and Freddy were glued to the windows of the van, trying to see as much as they could of the other side of the river and talking excitedly amongst themselves and to Chic, who was very familiar with the area. After the city zipped by, the suburbs blurred peacefully away, and they were left driving on an empty road with only a few places here and there to guide their attention, the excitement in the van died down to quiet conversation. The whole van, at first, was joined in, each person taking part in a conversation or telling a story together. After a while, the talk broke up into separate, softer conversations, and even later, as Chic drove them across a bridge much farther away from the one in the city, some of the passengers stopped talking altogether, leaning their heads up against the windows or on someone's shoulder, closing their eyes to drift off or merely gaze thoughtlessly at the world passing by.

Vincent stayed quiet most of the ride, unsure of if it was entirely his place to take part in the conversations. Moxie was propped up against a window, fast asleep and snoring quietly. He had been brightly active in most of the conversations and seemed as relaxed as the others. Foxy's soul-less body was lying down in the space between the back seat and the back of the van. Bonnie was asleep, leaning on a window, with Chica leaning on his shoulder and Freddy leaning against hers. Now, only Chic and Marionette were awake and talking in the front seat.

"You still have your cloak?" Chic asked her.

"Yeah," Marionette nodded. "It was in the warehouse with me, and I went back and got it a little while after Mike found me."

Chic drummed her robotic fingers on the steering wheel. She thoughtfully shifted her jaw before speaking. "Why do you think he did it?" She asked in a quieter voice.

"What, Vince?" Marionette murmured, throwing a quick glance at Vincent. He was sitting in the last seat in the back and looking out the window, lost in thought.

"No, I mean Jeremy. Why did he put you in that warehouse?" Chic asked quickly.

"Oh." Marionette blinked and leaned back. Cool silence filled the space between them. "I don't know. I never gave it much thought. I guess…well, we were friends and…I don't know. I'm still wondering why he'd knock me unconscious so that he didn't have to kill me and then go ahead and kill himself." Her voice wavered on her last few words.

Chic tossed her a look of surprise then turned her eyes back to the road. "So that's why you aren't dead… it wasn't a miracle- he spared you."

Marionette nodded and pulled her cloak tighter around herself. "I don't know why…"

Chic gave a half chuckle. "Join the club, sugar. None of us really ever understood him. He was always a man of mystery."

Marionette opened her mouth to say something then shut it. She merely murmured, "Mm." and leaned back in her seat, folding her arms and using her cloak as a blanket. "He was."

Chic glanced at her and gave a sympathetic smile. "Don't dwell on it. There's too many things to be happy about right now," She threw a glance in the rear view mirror at everyone. "Mike's back, you're not dead, Vincent's…kind of gone back to normal, and from what I hear, the ghost kids aren't out seeking revenge. It's great, really. Maybe there'll be a day where we can all live without being hidden and cooped up in a building. I know Fred, Bo, and I live pretty similar to everybody else right now…but it would be great if we could all have our own houses, you know?"

Marionette gave a half chuckle and smiled. "That's a nice thought, but you know that's just a dream."

Chic laughed. "I can dream, can't I, sugar?"

Suddenly, from the back seat, Mike jumped awake with a yelp. From the back of the van, Foxy quickly sat up and swung his head around to look at Mike.

"What the bloody hell was THAT?!" He cried.

Chic and Marionette whirled around with irritated looks. "Ssssssshhhhhh!" They hissed.

Mike and Foxy looked around and noticed the sleeping passengers before turning back to look at each other. Foxy gave Mike a questioning look.

"I don't know," Mike told him in a more quiet voice. "It happens a lot, I've just learned to roll with it."

"You keep havin' _nightmares_ about _dyin'_?!" Foxy growled softly. "_Why_?"

Mike gave a big shrug at him. "I don't know, it just happens."

"Why didn't ye tell me?"

"I dunno, what're you gonna do about it?"

"I don't know!" Foxy threw out his hands. "I'd think'a somethin' _eventually_!"

"So, it didn't work out?" Vincent was looking at them with eager curiosity. "You two split up after…almost an hour."

"We would'a lasted longer if you'd told me about this beforehand!" Foxy looked at Mike.

"I didn't know we were going to fall asleep!"

Vincent half smirked. "That is so cool." He rubbed his chin. "But technically you two just slept together."

Mike gave Foxy a suddenly stern look and pointed to him. Foxy's ears went flat against his head and he gave Mike an equally wide-eyed, stern look. He opened his mouth, shaking his head.

"I didn't know-

"Shut up," Mike cut him off. "I don't care." He lowered his voice. "No one must know." He pointed straight to Bonnie, who was still fast asleep. "_NO_ _ONE_."

Foxy nodded wordlessly.

Chic and Marionette gave a laugh as Chic turned and pulled into the restaurant driveway. She parked close to the front door and turned to look at the passengers. "Alright, here you are!"

At the stop of the van, Bonnie's eyes opened lazily. He lifted his head and nudged Chica and Freddy awake. Freddy started, but was still obviously very tired.

"I haven't slept in over twenty years…" He yawned.

Bonnie nodded. "I think you're onto something, Foxy, sleeping all the time."

"I wouldn't give him credit for it." Mike rolled his eyes as he climbed out of the van and Foxy gave a snort.

They said their goodbyes to Chic, slowly climbed out of the van, waved to their friend as she drove off, and filed back inside. Yawning and still very tired, they moved slowly down the hall.

"You know what?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I think I'll go back to sleep."

Freddy nodded to him with a lazy half-smile. "I think I will, too. After all, we don't have anything else to worry abou-

"Vincent! Vincent! Vincent!" A chorus of voices cried out, flying down the hallway to meet them. The ghost children swarmed around Vincent, bombarding him with excited talk.

"The ghost is still in the room!"

"We kept him in there just like you said!"

"He showed us who he is he's really, really scared…and kinda sweaty."

"He thinks we're evil and he wants to go away!"

"He's got this really cool power that he uses, but he won't tell us how!"

Vincent held up his hands. "One at a time!" he told them. He looked a Laura. "What's going on, now?"

"We've been keeping the ghost in that room this whole time." She frowned and combed her fingers through her scraggly hair. "You were gone for a long time."

"Yes, I was, and like always, there is a reasonable explanation for it." Vincent said, already walking fast down the hallway with excitement in his pale eyes. "But I'll tell you about that later," He threw aside the door to the hidden hallway. "Tell me about the ghost…"

Mike yawned and looked at the clock. "I've still got another hour to go." He dropped into a chair at a table-clothed table and rested his head on his arms.

Marionette sat beside him, throwing off her cloak and letting it drop to the floor. She sat back in her seat and folded her arms, staring blankly at the table.

"Whatcha broodin' for, lass?" Foxy asked, sitting across from Mike and resting his elbows on the table.

Bonnie rolled his eyes and took the seat next to her. "She's just mad because her boyfriend went off to play with a bunch of ghosts, isn't that right?" He nodded towards the door leading to the hidden hallway.

Marionette gave him a sour look and he snorted and laughed. "No," She said, sitting up as Freddy and Chica each took a seat. "I'm just bored."

"Of what?" Freddy asked. "We just go back from jumping off bridges and running around the city."

"Of doing nothing in the day time, I guess."

Bonnie slammed his fist hard on the table and made them all start. "WELCOME TO OUR LIFE!" He yelled. "And WAIT just a damn minute! You were right there with us twenty years ago! So why are YOU complaining?" He frowned thick eyebrows at her. "You didn't go into the city THAT often, did you?"

Marionette opened her mouth to say something, but shut it and avoided to look at them. Bonnie's eyes widened and he slammed his fist on the table. Freddy and Chica sat up and exchanged a look, slowly frowning. Foxy raised his eyebrows.

"Wait, wait…" Freddy held up his paw and shook his head. "You mean to tell me all those times you went to relax just outside the building you were really going out into the town? The park? The city?"

"Uummmm…yes?" Her shoulders rose uncomfortably and she sank into her seat, her red cheeks glowing.

Mike looked at all of them, tiredly confused. "Sooo…what?"

"I don't know." Chica shrugged and sat back again.

"It's just very surprising that she was so active and busy- and here we all thought she'd been shy and…non-adventurous." Freddy raised his eyebrows a bit. "You could've told us." He gave her a frown, then crossed his arms and leaned back.

"Hm…" Foxy's good paw clamped around his, the gears in his head were turning actively.

"It's not that…" Bonnie grunted. He stared off in surprise. "It makes sense now…" He fixed Marionette with an almost sympathetic frown. "Marionette…I know, okay?"

She blinked at him and swallowed hard. They stared at each other. An uneasy tension filled the room. Chica and Freddy exchanged confused looks with each other. Mike looked at Foxy to see if he was just as confused, but he seemed to be processing something. He had a good memory, when he wasn't drowsy or asleep.

A soft ringing told them that someone was calling the phone in the security office, and that power had been restored to the town.

"I'll get it!" Mike jumped up and rushed for the office, eager to be free from whatever awkwardness was unfolding behind him. As he slipped into the office and picked up the phone, he failed to think about who would call him at work at this particular hour.

"Mike Schmidt." He shook his head. "I mean, Fazbear-Pizza Security Office, sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. _What am I supposed to say?_

"Hello-ah, Mike, so good to hear back from you." A familiar voice from the other line said.

"_You_?" Mike shivered. "I thought you were…I mean," he scratched his head beneath his cap. "I _saw_ you…kill yourself."

"Y-yeah, I know…Ha ha, g-got a little s-scared there, didn't I?"

Mike didn't answer, only rubbed his neck, thinking of ways that this situation is possible. At his silence, the man on the other end of the line continued. "L-listen…you d-don't know m-me all that w-well and…w-well, I only k-know your name. I-if you could do me a-a _small_ favor, that'd be great."

Mike poked his head out of the office door and looked down the hallway and behind him at the door to see if this was some kind of prank Bonnie was trying to pull on him. "Uh…yeah, sure." He said hesitantly as he moved back into the office. "What favor?"

"Y-you got a c-cell phone, right?"

Mike sighed. "I used to. It shattered at the park when the power went out."

"O-oh…well, with any luck it'll work." The man said. "W-what I need you to d-do is just take your phone and put it o-outside."

Mike frowned. "Nice try, Bonnie. I'm not that stupid."

"N-n-nononono please! Listen to me!" The man pleaded.

Mike opened his mouth to say something, but heavy footsteps running down the hallway stopped him. He turned as Vincent skidded to a halt at the doorway.

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, MIKE!" He yelled.

Mike started. "What?"

Vincent's pale eyes fixed on the phone. Without looking at him, he pushed Mike out of the way and grabbed the phone from him, holding it up to his half-ear. "Nice try, getting the gullible security guard to help you."

"I am _right here_, you know." Mike frowned.

Vincent apparently didn't hear him, and continued talking into the phone. "Get out of there, before I reach in and grab you!" Behind Mike, the ghost kids clustered and eagerly watched Vincent, who let his robot arm go limp to raise his ghost arm from the machine. "One…two…"

The phone glowed white and a pale blur shot out of the device and into the Springtrap suit, sending a second ghost spinning out of it. The children gasped and stared at the ghost in front of them; a lean and lanky young man with a polo tucked into his pants and a frizzy, curly ponytail. He sat and crossed his ankles, frowning his eyebrows and rubbed his chin.

"I feel naked." He said. He looked down at himself. "I AM NAKED!" He whirled around and scowled at the Springtrap suit, which was stumbling around with bright white glowing eyes. "Hey! You! GET OUT OF THERE AND GIVE ME BACK MY SUIT!"

"Wwhooooooaaaaa!" The kids marveled, looking at him.

Vincent cringed and held up his hands. "Kids! Don't look at me!"

Bonnie slid into the office with a look that was ready to ruin someone's life. "Who's naked?!" His eyes fell on Vincent and he doubled over and laughed hard. "You don't look a day over twenty-three!" he howled.

Mike blinked and shook his head a little. "Aren't you supposed to be old-forty or fifty or something?"

Vincent folded his long arms in front of him. "Ghosts can be whatever age they want to-if they've lived to reach that age in their lifetime." He shook his head and scowled at the Springtrap suit. "Give it BACK!"

"N-no! Why should I trust YOU?!" The ghost within the suit moaned. He looked around at everyone. "Why-y are any of y-you trusting him?!"

Bonnie's eyes widened. "YOU?! You're that guy from the phone- what are YOU doing here?!"

"You don't know his name?" Mike raised his eyebrows.

Bonnie looked at him and shook his head. "We have never officially MET him- he never let us get close enough…until, you know, he blew his brains out."

Vincent groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose stressfully. "Kids, help me take him back to the closet, please."

The ghost children eagerly flew under the Springtrap suit and lifted it together, carrying it away while the ghost inside yelled in protest. Vincent grumbled and followed them down the hallway with a very uneager expression on his face.

Mike opened his mouth to say something to Bonnie, but the clock on the wall cut him off. It was six o'clock and his shift was over.

"Bye, Mike!" A chorus of voices called from down the hallway. Marionette appeared in the office doorway with her cloak swept back behind her shoulders, leaning on her hip.

"Bye, guys!" Mike called back, looking around for his things. When he couldn't find them, he panicked briefly, then a realization crossed his mind, followed by intense frustration. He sighed. "I never clocked in." he said. "We went straight from the park to the river."

Bonnie laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "NICE!" He walked out of the office chuckling. "See you later, Schmidt."

** Alright, I'll be honest, I didn't really know where to end this chapter. It's getting really close to the end of the story, so right now all of the chapters are kind of over lapping. **


	25. Chapter 25

** Short chapter, I know, but the next chapter will probably be pretty long.**

Mike awoke up in his room feeling very tired. His clock read 11:32, and he knew he probably shouldn't sleep in any later than he already had. He pulled himself very slowly out of his bed with a groan.

After about ten minutes, he walked out into the living room where Marionette was watching Chanteys on the couch with Spike, eating a generous bowl of ice cream. Mike fell into his arm chair, rubbing his eyes and forehead.

"Is that a new episode?" He asked in a tired voice.

"No, this is last week's. The new one comes on at midnight tonight like always." She swallowed another mouthful of ice cream. "Bonnie told me I missed something important in this one."

"Mm…" Mike nodded.

She threw a glance at him. "You look tired."

"I am." He gave a half-chuckle and yawned. "I just need something to do to get me awake."

"Did you try showering?" She asked, moving her ice cream away from the dog so that he couldn't eat it.

"Yeah, but that never wakes me up."

"Because you fall asleep."

He stared at her. "How did you know?"

"You snore." She half-chuckled. Finishing the last of her ice cream, she got up and put her bowl in the kitchen. "We can go for a walk, if you want." She said, taking Spike's leash off of the coat rack.

"Sounds good to me." Mike stood up and picked Spike's rubber ball up from the floor behind the couch.

Spike eagerly ran up to Marionette at the sight of his leash and she clipped it into his collar. He licked her face as she did and she squinted.

"Don't forget your cloak." Mike tossed Marionette her cloak and she clipped it around her shoulders. He went to the closet to grab his big coat.

"It's actually pretty warm out today," Marionette told him. "All you'll need is a coat."

True enough, the air outside was very warm. Instead of snow covering the ground, dozens of weeds, flowers, and grasses were growing in vivid colors underneath the spring sun. Bright green leaves were dotting the branches of the oaks and dogwoods everywhere and waving lively in the warm breeze. There were big and puffy white clouds in the big blue sky, growing bigger as they collided and tempting the birds to fly freely in and out of them.

Mike and Marionette walked down the sidewalk and out of his neighborhood without really setting a path. They thought of the park, to throw the ball for Spike, but the park was awful busy around this hour and not everyone was dog-friendly. The dog park would've been fine, but Spike was afraid of other dogs.

"So, has that music box caused you any trouble lately?" Marionette asked. "I haven't heard it go off in a while."

"It hasn't gone off automatically in a long time." Mike said. "I wind it up sometimes when I can't sleep though. It's still got its weird effect."

"Making you fall asleep?" Marionette removed her hood as they went down a road that was free of buildings and cars. Sunlight drifted in between the leaves and casted fractured rays of gold onto the asphalt and grass.

"No," Mike gave Spike's leash a tug as the dog eyed a squirrel. "Have you ever noticed how whenever the music box plays the music kind of comes through the ceiling and the floors?"

Marionette frowned at him. "No…"

"Really? You never hear all of the other…" He waved his hands in elaboration, and trailed off as Marionette shook her head. He shrugged and bounced Spike's tennis ball up and down on the pavement, catching it in his hand after each drop. "Hm."

"Weird how things work all special for you." Marionette gave him a curious look and folded her arms.

"What?" He threw a glance at her and gave a little frown. "Don't look at me like that I didn't ask for this." He bounced the ball and went to catch it again, but it fell out of his hand and into the grass, rolling a little ways downhill. The hill inclined rather steeply before very slowly inclining up into another hill in the woods. A fast moving river separated the two hills.

"Nice job, ditzy." Marionette said.

Mike shrugged and Spike tugged on his leash in the direction of his ball. Gently, Mike tugged his dog back. "Hey, could you get that? If I go down there, Spike will probably end up dragging me all the way downhill."

She rolled her eyes with a half smile. "Sure, hang on." Carefully she moved down the hill towards the ball. Dirt and little rocks showered downwards from beneath her feet with each step. She eased her way towards the bright green ball and knelt down a little ways.

"Careful." Mike warned.

"I know, I know!" She reached for the ball. "I don't need you to-whoa!" Her foot slipped and she fell forwards, tumbling all the way down the hill until she splashed into the river. The spring sun hadn't yet reached it, and the fast-moving, icy water bit at her cruelly.

"Hey! Are you okay?!" Mike called down to her. Spike barked.

Marionette pushed herself out of the water. "I'm fine!" She yelled. "I just need to…" She trailed off as she turned around. It was pitch black night. Not even the rays of the moon were streaking through the branches of the forest. They were bare, as if all the leaves clinging to their branches had dropped suddenly. She looked the way she'd fallen. Leading up to the side of the road was a path she hadn't seen before. Trees were scraped, grass was torn up, and bushes and smaller trees were run over and bent in her direction. At the top of the hill, on the side of the road, instead of Mike were three figures silhouetted against the night. Marionette heard the shrill shriek of a girl and watched an arm point down in her direction. Panic and confusion flooding through her, she looked around her. Just at her side was a sleek black Camaro- in ruins. The whole front of the car was mangled and smoking. The windshield and front seat windows were shattered. There wasn't a driver in the front, but there was a body lying face-down and bleeding into the river.

Horrified and sickened, Marionette clutched her cloak and shrieked. She buried her face in her hands and screamed.

"Marionette! Hey! Marionette!"

Marionette moved her hands away from her face. The scene of the car accident was gone and replaced with the day. Sunlight was dripping through the treetops, turning the leaves to emeralds and peridots and pooling in little patches on the floor of the woods. Spike was pulling at the end of his leash with all his might and howling. Mike was trying not to be dragged downhill by his dog and looking at Marionette with a concerned expression.

More than eager to get away from the place, Marionette quickly climbed the hillside back up to the road. When she did, Mike reached out and patted her shoulder.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I…I…" She shivered. "I saw…"

"Who did you see?" Mike asked Marionette, rubbing her shoulder.

She sniffed and opened her mouth to say something, but paused as she looked around her. They were at the three way intersection in the less known roads of the town. Right across from her was the gas station and the road with the cemetery that led out near the park. To her left was the street that let out to the main road in front of the Fazbear place. To her right was the empty street that led to the warehouse.

"It's Jeremy." She turned her head towards the direction of the warehouse. "He's in there."

"Jeremy?" Mike echoed. "How do you know?"

"This was where he died." She gestured to hill and the river. "And that, I can only assume, is where he was buried." She gestured to the road with the cemetery. "And the warehouse…" She clenched her fists and ran down the street towards the warehouse. "Come on!"

Spike gave a bark and followed her, dragging Mike with him. "Wait, why are we going there?" Mike asked. "I thought you hated that place!"

"He's in there!" Marionette called back. "He's all alone- I have to talk to him!"

Mike chased her down the street, trying not to be dragged to the ground by his dog. They kept running until it felt like civilization had vanished completely. There, still covered in vines and moss, was the warehouse. Marionette ran up to the front door and looked in.

Spike skidded to a halt before Mike could turn into the crumbling fenced-in property on which the warehouse sat. Mike tugged on the leash, but his dog wouldn't move. His fur fluffed up, his back arched, his lip curled back and revealed pearly white fangs, his eyes flashed. He growled at the building.

"Marionette, maybe we shouldn't be here. You said it yourself, there's a bad aura here." Mike said.

She didn't listen to him and opened the door, slipping inside.

"Marionette! Wait!" Mike gripped the leash in both of his hands and forced his dog into the building. It was just as dark and ominous as before.

"I can't leave him- what if he's trapped here?" She said, looking around frantically. "What he-" She blinked and screamed, falling limp to the ground. Her cry fell away in an echo, as if she'd fallen into an abyss.

"Marionette!" Mike ran over to her body and gave her a shove. Her little white pupils had vanished and her eyes were empty patches of darkness. He could still feel her gears and power working to keep her alive, but she lay still in his arms. Spike nuzzled her and whined.

"Oh jeez…" Mike shuddered. "Oh man…what do I do?" He ran a hand through his short hair. He snapped his fingers. "Vincent…He'll know what to do." Laying Marionette's body against the wall by the door, he clutched his dog's leash in his hand and sprinted out of the building.

* * *

Foxy opened his eyes in Pirate Cove after a nap. He twitched his ears. There were birds singing outside in the spring day. The restaurant was quiet. He only heard a few muffled voices. He frowned. It was probably around midday…why was the restaurant so empty? He then rolled his eyes and thumped himself in the head. It was Sunday.

He pushed himself off of the floor, yawned with his big jaws and cracked his back. Scowling at the dog gate blocking Pirate Cove from the rest of the restaurant, he stepped over it casually, scraping his foot a little as he did so, and went into the building's main room. Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie weren't there. Foxy poured himself a cup of soda, gargled it in the back of his throat, and went into the boss's office where the television was.

Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie were sitting on the couch in the office that Vincent had stolen from God knows where, leaning back and watching the TV.

"Hey," Bonnie said, not turning to look at him.

"What're we doin'?" Foxy asked, sitting on the floor in front of them since there was no room left on the couch.

"Chica somehow missed last week's episode of Chanteys so we're all watching it again." Freddy said, rubbing his temple.

Foxy took a gulp of his soda and choked at something on the screen. "Wait- Topaz is…when did _that_ happen?!"

Bonnie frowned. "He's been dead for like three episodes dude, where have you been?"

"The last thing I remember is Sebastian and Simon bein' stuck on that island after the ship wreck." Foxy said.

Bonnie, Freddy, and Chica titled their heads and groaned.

"Oh my Gooooood." Chica groaned.

"That's from like a MONTH ago!" Bonnie said.

"Let's go _back_." Freddy picked up the television remote with a disgruntled expression.

"Hold it now, how is this my fault?" Foxy frowned at them. "Y'never invite me to watch this with you!  
"You're always sleeping!" Freddy retorted.

Foxy crossed his arms and grumbled.

Meanwhile, in the hidden hallway, the doors of the two secret doors were open. The five children were sitting in a circle, half in the hallway and half in the empty room across from the bloody room where Vincent died.

"Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?" John asked, touching each foot of each person in the circle in rhythm to the rhyme. He stopped with his hand on Chris.

"Eight." Chris said.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight." John went around the circle, tapping each foot with each number. He finished with his hand on Laura's foot. "You're out one, Laura."

Laura wrinkled up her nose and pulled her foot back towards her, out of the circle. She looked across the circle at Jess, who already had both feet out of the circle. "You're right, this isn't fun."

In the empty room they were half-intruding in, Vincent's ghost was standing and frowning at the Springtrap suit- more specifically, the ghost inside. After tying the suit to a chair, and binding the ghost to the chair with ghost-manifesting rope, Vincent had spent the last few hours interrogating the spirit. At first, the kids had been eager to watch and participate, but after about an hour they got bored and went to go play other games.

The room contained only a few pieces of furniture- all of it was ghost-manifested. On one wall hung two big maps; one of the world, and one of the United States. On each map, little pins had been stuck to all of the areas Vincent had taken the kids to visit. Up against another wall was a chalk board with notes on ghost behavior, and in the corner of one wall was a little desk holding a big radio. It looked like an average room…except for the fact that every piece of furniture was a little more…transparent than the furniture to be found in an average home store.

"Listen," Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not trying to kill you or murder every child on the planet. If you hadn't noticed- the kids and everyone else here has put the incident behind us. I'm not the same person." He took a deep breath. "Okay, let's take it from the top. Why are you haunting the park?"

"I-I don't want to tell you!" The ghost yelled. "Why do YOU want to know about it? What can you possibly do to help _me_?!"

Vincent took a deep breath. "Alright, look, you blew your brains out, right? And when you died, was there anyone there to take you home?"

"Take me…home?" the ghost tiled his head.

"I'll take that as a no." Vincent held out his hands. "Listen, when people kill themselves, they end their lives before they're supposed to, so they aren't welcomed into the afterlife until their proper death day. You've just got to wait it out a bit." He held out his hands and gave a half smile. "I only want to _help_."

The ghost turned his head away from Vincent and defiantly shut his eyes. Vincent grinded his teeth and clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Listen, pal, we can do this all day!" He growled. "After I died I made a choice to help other ghosts who were struggling with being left behind! The kids and I want to keep the living people safe from whatever the bad ghosts want from the world, and you stalking people in the park isn't helping much!"

From the desk, the song 'Toxic' drifted through the speakers of the radio.

Vincent reached into the suit with both of his hands and grabbed the ghost by the shirt, shaking him violently. "AND STOP PLAYING BRITNEY SPEARS MUSIC!" He yelled.

The radio quieted.

The ghost children stopped their game and curiously gathered into the room. Chris tilted his head at Vincent and then looked at the ghost.

"So he hasn't said why he's following people?" He asked.

Vincent sighed. "No."

Laura tilted her head and squinted her eyes at the ghost. She wandered up and hugged his leg. "It's because you guys are bullying him!" She said.

"_Bullying_?" Chris's eyes flashed in outrage, but Vincent patted his shoulder, looking at Laura curiously.

The little girl looked up at the ghost sympathetically. "Everyone thinks your evil, but it's not your fault!" She said. "They don't understand. You didn't even want to die- you were scared, you had no choice."

"Exactly!" The ghost sighed, slumping in relaxation. "Finally, someone who understands!" He ran his hand over his head. "It…wasn't like I was stalking those people…" he leaned forward and confessed. "I was just looking for someone to stay with…someone to kind of…share company with, you know? I figured if I was in a house with mortals, he wouldn't come looking for me there." He shut his mouth very quickly.

"_He_…?" Vincent narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Who's _he_?"

"No one, he's no one, really." The ghost said quickly.

"It's his _boyfriend_." John whispered to Paul. They snickered.

Vincent threw a glance at Laura. "We can help you hide from him." He told the ghost. "We promise, we'll protect you. You just need to let us know who he is."

The ghost looked at them all and took a deep breath. He sighed and slipped out of the Springtrap suit, kicking it away from him and removing the mask he hid behind. "Okay…" He said, looking at the floor. "It wasn't my fault. I didn't know who he was when I met him." He flushed. "I kind of…cried a lot when I died." He admitted.

Vincent shrugged. "Everyone does."

"I ran away…I didn't know where to go. I didn't know if there was some special…path to the afterlife or something." He wrung his hands. "I didn't go to heaven…I didn't know if that meant I was going to hell or what…Then he appeared. He reached out his hand to me and said 'Don't worry, we'll go together.' I could only assume he meant the afterlife." He shook his head. "I didn't know how long I was there, in his maze. It was horrible. I tried to get out as soon as I could but…It seemed as if the more I tried, the harder it was to escape." He shuddered. "And what was worse…he could see right into me. He could see right into my head and go through all of my greatest fears and desires. And he used me!" His voice wavered. "He took what he could out of my head like tools and used it all to make his game." His bottom lip quivered. "After a while, I wanted to stop trying. I felt like…" he sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "No one would…care if I just stayed there. I wanted to be with people I knew- anyone really…I wanted company so badly…But the longer I stayed, the more I felt like returning to the rest of the world or even heaven would just…annoy people. No one would care if I rotted in there forever…and it started to feel like it was my fault-like I'd done something bad-really bad…But I didn't know what it was."

Vincent listened to him intently, racking his brain for anything that matched up with what he was being told. Much to his disappointment, he had nothing that sounded similar to the ghost the man in front of him was describing. "And you never got his name?"

"No," The man shook his head. "He never told me…I never wondered."

"Well, don't worry." Vincent patted his shoulder. "You're safe here. I'll go pay a visit to this ghost and-

"No! Please!" The ghost gripped Vincent by the shoulders, his eyes flashed in horror. "Vincent, please, listen to me." His voice quivered. "You can't win this one. You can't fight him or reason with him…You just can't. I was l-lucky to get myself out…I felt guilty about leaving the symphony behind, b-but I just…I can't go back." He looked Vincent in the eyes and begged. "Please don't go after him. You'll never make it out of there. He won't let someone like you go."

Vincent frowned slightly, looking at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but a cry from the other room stopped him before he could speak.

"HELP!" Someone cried from the main room.

"Stay with him." Vincent told the kids sternly before floating out of the hallway. As he entered the main room, he saw Foxy, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie all exiting the manager's office to see who'd called out. Mike caught sight of Vincent and ran quickly over to him.

"It's Marionette." He said in a panicking voice. "She said she had to go to the warehouse, and when we got there…I don't know what happened. She screamed and fell down. She's alive but she's not moving it's like…"

"Someone took her soul." Vincent finished, narrowing his eyes. He rubbed his chin. "The warehouse you say?"

Mike nodded.

He snapped his fingers. "I thought I said the ghost at the warehouse made it very clear he wanted to be left alone."

"It depends on which one you see."

Mike, Freddy, Foxy, Chica, and Bonnie looked behind Vincent to the ghost in the doorway of the hidden hallway. He was looking grimly at them. He looked at Vincent. "You probably only met the watch dog…He uses it a lot, like a slave, to ward unwanted people off." He shook his head. "Vincent, don't."

Vincent looked from him to the others and tightened his jaw. "I'll go and get Marionette back. I've been a ghost for some time, I can take him head on."

"No," The other ghost looked mortified, his face went sickly pale.

"Chill it out, Phone Guy." Bonnie said. "It's not like he's going alone."

Vincent frowned and tilted his head.

"We might not be able to take this ghost head-on." Foxy said with a shrug. "But the least we can do is give you moral support."

Chica smiled. "Band family sticks together."

Freddy looked at them all like they were insane, clenching his fists ready to go on a rant about what a bad idea this was and all of the possible horrible outcomes is would lead to. Instead, he let out a heavy breath through his nose. "Stick together." He grunted, refusing to look supportive.

Vincent gave them all a grateful look. "Thanks." He turned and looked at the ghost children. "Keep him company." He nodded towards their guest.

"When are we leaving?" Bonnie asked.

"Right at sundown."

* * *

Just as the last scarlet rays of the sun were vanishing into darkness, Mike led Vincent, Chica, Bonnie, Freddy, and Foxy out of the restaurant doors and right to the little road next to the restaurant that would take them straight to the warehouse.

"This way." He said, briskly leading them into the wooded path so as to keep them out of a sight of a passing car. The woods were drenched in the fiery oranges and blood reds of sunset, casting dark shadows on the road. The pavement was turned scarlet in the twilight.

"So, this ghost," Foxy said to Vincent as they briskly headed towards the warehouse. "Y'think ye can beat 'em?"

"I'm sure I can at least negotiate with him." Vincent frowned, concentrating on the path ahead. "Ghosts can sometimes create little wonderlands for themselves…or gain certain abilities over the course of time or based off of experiences in their lives." He nodded to Mike. "For example, Mike's extended vision and that…weird ability what's-his-name has with phones." He took a deep breath. "But from what he tells me, this ghost has got a lot of power…I've never heard or seen anything like it…keeping other souls as slaves... and without a set reason." He shook his head.

"Well, here we are." Mike pointed ahead to the warehouse. It was drenched in ominous scarlet and shadow.

Freddy and Chica cringed, having not seen the structure before. "It looks awful." Chica said, looking at all of the vines and weeds growing in and around the building.

"It doesn't look like much of a 'terrifying prison'." Freddy grunted.

"Nothing is as it seems with ghosts." Vincent said. He floated through the front doors and waited for the others to open the door and follow him in.

"Something doesn't feel right about this place." Chica said, looking around with an uneasy expression on her face.

"It seems worse than the last time _I_ was here." Bonnie said.

"Y'got that right." Foxy nodded, moving closer to Mike.

"It gets worse every time someone walks through the door, it seems." Mike told him. He turned and gestured to Marionette's limp body against the wall. "There she is, I left her here."

Chica frowned in sadness at the sight of her friend. "Poor thing…" She murmured. Bonnie patted her shoulder, but was looking around with an uneasy look on his face as if something might jump out of the shadows at any moment.

"What now?" Freddy asked Vincent, looking in disgust at his surroundings.

"It'd probably be foolish to attempt to summon a ghost like this." Vincent said. "I suppose the right thing to do is to call for Marionette." He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Marionette! Come out!" he called. "We're looking for you!"

They all felt a sudden pulling feeling, then the sight of the warehouse vanished, surrounding each of them in utter darkness.

" ' . . ."


	26. Chapter 26

**Hey does anyone know where I can get one of those electronic sketchpad thingies that hook up to your computer? They're like this little sketchpad thing that's electronic and it's got like this stylus- Okay, lemme rephrase: Does anyone know where I can get one of those electronic sketchpad thingies for LESS than like six thousand dollars? All the ones I've found are in the thousands range and I…just want to try and make colors and stuff on the computer like the hip kids ;_; If anyone knows off the top of their head that'd be appreciated if you could just PM me about it.**

Before he could see where he was, Bonnie could feel the violent tilting and bobbing of his surroundings. He could hear crashing. As his senses came to him, he realized he was in a tiny, oar-less rowboat out on the high seas in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. The sky and the sea were at war with each other. The ocean roared as mountains of dark, choking water rose and fell, foam gurgling around it. The sky rumbled with the sound of a thousand drums, lightning striking mercilessly into the sea from black clouds angrily churning overhead. The wind screamed and howled in his ears, forcing the rain to hit against his back like little knives falling from the raging heavens.

"Oh, God!" He cried, looking around him. There was no one else out on the seas. There was no sign of land. No horizon could be seen in the midst of the elemental war. In the boat, there was a massive anchor hooked onto his foot with a heavy, metal chain link. "Oh, no…!" He tugged at the brace around his ankle, trying to slide it from his foot, hyperventilating in severe panic.

_ I'm going to drown….I'm going to drown…Drown…_The thought of the boat overturning slipped into his mind. He imagined the black, endless abyss below him. He imagined the anchor dragging him down deeper and deeper into the sea. He imaged water filling his gears to the brim. Robots lasted longer in the water than humans…All the while he'd be waiting for death. He'd be sinking, sinking into the endless, empty, black abyss of the sea.

The thought was so terrifying to him that he began to shake violently, losing the strength he'd mustered up and replacing it with terror. He hadn't even realized that his ankle, his foot, and, actually, his whole leg was that of a human's instead of a blue-violet animatronic's.

"What…?" He looked at his legs, his arms, his hands, and his torso up and down. He was a human; wearing black dress pants, and a black vest over a dark blue button up shirt that was drawn up and cuffed at the elbows. He was soaked from the rain. "What the _hell_?!" He ran his hands through his drenched hair. "What happened to me?!"

He looked around him. He was in the middle of a raging war between the sky and the sea, without any oars and an anchor tied around his foot, waiting to drown. He had no memory of how he was placed into this situation. And now, somehow, he was a human- a human who could choke and drown much quicker that a robot.

Miserably, he looked up at the sky in hopelessness.

*LINE BREAK*

"No! Please! Don't kill me!" Marionette screamed, looking up at Foxy from cringing in a corner, quivering and holding her hands up in an attempt to block him. Her eyes were round in horror.

"What?" Foxy blinked, taken aback suddenly. They were in parts and service, back at the old restaurant. He looked up at the ceiling. "…How…?"

"Please, Foxy, don't…" Marionette sobbed. "Let me go…let me go…"

"What're ye cryin' for, lass?" Foxy asked, kneeling to her and stretching out his hand in a soft gesture. He then realized his knee was wet and sticky beneath his clothes. He looked down at himself. He was covered in blood. Forgetting his strangely human appearance, he jumped up with a gasp. He could hear sirens from outside the building, approaching slowly.

"Y-y-you …y-you killed them…" She whispered.

"Killed…who?" Foxy frowned an eyebrow, starting to feel sick.

With a trembling hand, she pointed behind him. As Foxy turned around, a weight fell into the pit of his stomach. There were dead, bloodied employees across the floor. The animatronics were still, their ripped wires, cables, bolts and screws were strewn across the floor. One limp, bloodied, still, tiny body caught his attention. His heart skipped a bit.

"Oh no…" He moved quickly across the room and fell to his knees, lifting the little body up in his own crimson, shaking hands. The body's head was red and sticky, blood trickling into its face. Its soft brown eyes were glazed over. "Oh…_no_…" He moaned. "No…no…"

"Y-you killed him." Marionette whimpered, shivering. "H-he was j-just a little boy…just a k-kid…and you…you murdered him."

"No…" He sobbed. "Oh, God, no…"

*LINE BREAK*

Freddy rubbed his head with a bit of a groan. His hat was gone. He sat up angrily and looked around, but as he did so, he realized that the hat was now the least of his worries. The place he was in was massive and industrial. It looked like some kind of factory. The room he was in was big and devoid of furniture with the exception of a few crates. Chica, Bonnie, Freddy, and Marionette were all in the room sitting across from him, shaking in their metal suits and huddling together.

"Yer awake." Foxy said, looking at him.

Freddy looked out of the doorway. There was a warm, scarlet glow coming from the darkness beyond the room they were in. "Where are we?" He asked. He smelled thick industrial smoke. "Is that _fire_?" He shook his head. "Guys, we can't be close to fire. The smoke locks up our gears, remember?" He clenched his fists. "Fire smoke alone can kill us-ˮ He looked down and realized his hands were human. In fact, the rest of him was human, too. He frowned at the others. "What's is happening?"

"The public…found out about all of the stunts we've been pulling." Bonnie said, ignoring Freddy's appearance as if it was nothing new. "All of them. They unraveled the murder mystery, they found out about the drum we stole, the car, the Springtrap incident with Vincent…everything."

Chica sniffed. "We should've listened to you, Freddy." She said. "We're sorry."

Freddy frowned. "_What_?"

Footsteps could be heard, slowly making their way towards the room.

"Sshh!" Bonnie hissed. They all closed their eyes and pretended to be inactive. Freddy hesitated, frowning in uncertainty before following their actions.

He heard the owner of the footsteps approach the room. "They're in here." It was the voice of an employee from the restaurant, but he couldn't place the man's voice to his face.

"Alright," Said another voice owning another pair of footsteps. The second man joined the first at the door. The two paused and were quiet for a moment. "Let's get this over with."

Freddy felt a pair of hands grab his arm near the wrist and drag him out of the room. As he left the room and into the warm glowing room, he felt heat rising. The smell of smoke increased. He heard the gentle growling of a fire. He peeked open one of his eyes and the sight in front of him horrified him. There was a massive industrial furnace nearly six feet away from them, yawning hungrily with flames writhing within it.

His heart began to pound within his chest. This was it. He was going to be incinerated. Fear choked him as he imagined the heat of the furnace. He felt himself being dragged towards the flames and wanted to kick and scream, but he was too terrified to make a sound.

"Wait!" One of the men said, stopping Freddy from being thrown into the flames. "Boss says he wants to keep that one."

"What?" The man clutching Freddy's arms asked. "Why?"

"You know the boss; always trying to keep the chain alive. He'll probably open the restaurant again in a few years."

"Alright. So this one stays and the rest go?"

_The rest go…?_ Freddy felt a sudden, worse fear flare up inside of him as he was dragged back from the furnace.

"Yep." The other employee answered his partner.

_The rest go…_The phrase sank into Freddy's mind. The rest are destroyed…It was just like the first time. But instead of two dying for the criminal acts of someone else, they'd all die. And, once again, Freddy would be helpless to save them. There was a twisting, breaking feeling in his gut as he lay helplessly on the ground in safety while his friends disappeared from his side.

*LINE BREAK*

Chica opened her eyes. She was lying on the floor of the warehouse. She looked around; she was alone in one of the aisles of forgotten belongings. Shaking her head, she went to push herself off of the ground and started. Her hands weren't big, bulky and yellow, they were small, pale, and soft. She stood up and looked herself over. She was human, with a yellow sundress and apron. Grinning, she did a little spin and watched her dress skirt fan out around her.

"Hey, guys! Check this _out_!" She called, looking around.

No one answered her. There was a soft buzzing noise coming from the front of the building. She tilted her head. "…Guys?" Carefully, she walked towards the front of the building. Pale light was filtering in through the grimy glass doors and pooling across the dirty warehouse floor. Everyone else was lying, still, on the floor. Mike was lying next to the door with his back to Chica, flies buzzing around him. There was an uneasy heaviness in the room. With the exception of him, everyone else was still an animatronic.

"How long…have we been out?" Chica asked herself. She walked closer to Mike and stopped suddenly as she reached the door. His hands were black, and there were little welts covering the side of his face. Besides his black hands, the rest of his skin was yellow. The sight of him churned Chica's stomach and made her feel sick. "Oh my God…" She choked.

Quickly, she opened the door and left the building, unable to stand the feeling of standing around a dead body. Her heart began to race. The sky was pale gray and as soon as she stepped outside, a deafening silence greeted her. She hung her head and let out a few bitter tears for her friends, still trapped cold and dead in the warehouse. _They died without me…I didn't even get to say goodbye…_She felt nauseous, thinking of Mike and the way his body lay sickeningly on the dirty floor. She forced herself not to cry.

The air was warm and muggy, dragging at her body. She looked at the trees. Their leaves were turning charcoal and dark brown, drifting from scraggly, malnourished branches and drifting to large and unnatural piles at the bases of the each tree's trunk. There was no breeze.

"This isn't right." Chica murmured. The air felt strange in her lungs.

Hugging herself lightly, Chica moved away from the warehouse. _Just get back home. _She told herself. _Get home, that's it, just get home._ She shook her head and shuddered.

As she walked back down the street towards the warehouse, she was aware that the only noise was the sound of her footsteps on the asphalt. The trees were still, other than the occasional death of a leaf as it fell to the ground. There were no airplanes in the skies, no echo of distant town or city activity, no sound of cars busily or calmly roaming the streets…

Coming to the three way intersection with the gas station, Chica felt a weight drop in her stomach. The cemetery had been extended all the way to the gas station…except…there weren't graves. There were massive holes in the ground yawning and waiting to be filled. There were three corpses on the ground. Two were wearing masks with beaks that resembled those of birds. She turned away from the image and threw up.

Her heart racing faster, Chica broke into a brisk jog and ran towards home. _This is just a horrible dream…it's got to be a horrible dream…_She shook her head, fear bubbling up inside of her. _The plague happened centuries ago…and there's even treatment for it now…_She started to tremble. _This can't be happening…this can't be happening…_

She burst out of the little side street and onto the main road. Looking to her right, she began to feel sick again. About a mile down the road she could see that the town was completely deserted. The water tower was leaking a strange pale gas that turned transparent as it filtered across the town. Even from her view, she could see two bodies lying limp and still on the ground.

To her right was a sight that made her heart skip a beat. The restaurant was gone. The roof had caved in, the walls had crumbled. The building was rotting, and from the looks of it, the structure had _been_ rotting for a long time now.

Her home was gone, her family was gone, and the entire town was demolished.

*LINE BREAK*

Mike opened his eyes with a start. As soon as he did, he jumped up in fear. He was on the side of a busy, four-lane highway. Cars, trucks, vans, and semis were barreling past him at high speed, leaking awful fumes from their exhausts. Mike leaned up against a divider, hyperventilating and shaking. His back leaned over the divider, and the glance he threw behind him nearly made his heart stop. Beneath the road was a massive system of highways that curled and twisted around the land, vehicles of all sorts zooming across them.

"Well, how do y'feel?"

Mike jumped and looked to his right. Foxy was there, leaning against the divider from the highway they were standing on and what Mike decided was certain death. His arms were folded, relaxed, and his eyebrow was raised over his uncovered eye.

"W-w-what are we DOING here?!" Mike choked, his knees wobbling unsteadily.

"Facin' yer fear." Foxy said.

Mike was too horrified to feel embarrassed at this point. "W-_what_?!"

Foxy grabbed him by the waist and held him over the other side of the divider, right over the tangle of busy roads below. Gravity gripped Mike by the ankles, eager to tug him out of Foxy's grasp and pull him to the steady, hard, maze of rushing cars below. Mike shrieked.

"STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP-PUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWNPUTMEDOWN!" He quivered in fear, too afraid of falling to squirm and too terrified in general to stay still. He clenched and unclenched his fists and curled and uncurled his toes, screaming. "FOXY! PUTMEDOWN!"

"How're you gonna learn to man up if ye wussy outta ev'rything?" Foxy growled to him.

His words hit Mike's ears with a sudden harshness that made Mike start. Something clicked in him then. His heart still beating up in his throat and his hyperventilating nowhere near ready to calm down, he turned on Foxy with a frown.

"Y-you're not r-real." He stammered.

"What th'bloody hell are ye goin' on about, lad?" Foxy snarled.

"None of this is r-real." Mike said, more certain this time. "I know Foxy, he wouldn't put me-or any of his friends for that matter- in _danger_ like this." He forced himself to look at the horror beneath him. "Holding me over the side of a high-speed, four-lane, expressway like this would be the last thing he'd do!"

The Foxy in front of him raised his eyebrows in surprise. He then snorted and scowled, his muzzle scrunched up angrily. "Your choice." He released his grip on Mike, sending him plummeting straight down.

Mike forced a scream back down his throat. He forced himself not to flail his arms in fear. Though he could feel gravity's arms clutch him and rapidly drag him to the Earth below, and though the wind shrieked in his ears, he forced himself to cross his arms defiantly.

"This is just a dream!" He yelled out loud. "It's made up and fake! I'm not afraid of it anymore and I never will be!"

At that moment, the entire scene before him vanished and before Mike knew it, he was sitting down in the corner of a hallway. Directly in front of him and to his right, the halls stretched into darkness. The walls were white and there was blue carpet flooring. It was quiet.

Mike jumped to his feet with a grin. "Ah-ha! I knew it!" He pumped his fist, his fear replaced with ecstatic victory and joy. "I knew it, I knew it!" He ran his hands through his short hair and looked around, realizing his surroundings.

"This must be that…slave world Vincent mentioned." He muttered to himself. He looked at the hallways. It wouldn't be easy to escape, that he knew. "I wonder if the others are here too…"

" ' . . . . . . ' . . ."

Mike plugged his fingers into his ears. "Aahh! I'm not listening! I'm not listening! You're a liar!" He took the path directly in front of him, running. Strangely, the lighting around him increased without him needing a torch. He paused briefly and looked around him to see that the paths in front and behind him were enveloped in darkness, but the small bubble around him was lit, as if he was his own flashlight.

It was certainly a maze, he found out. There were many twists and turns and each hallway was the same; long and empty. He attempted to throw his vision, but it didn't work. He tried calling out his friends' names, but no one answered. Nothing he tried was working.

Finally, he slumped down in a corner and crossed his arms, stumped. Panicking and worrying, he found out, only surfaced images of the highway horror-land he'd just escaped from, and he assumed that if he panicked enough he'd be forced back there. Instead of running in circles and worrying, Mike sat down to think.

He was able to get out by realizing that the situation was a false reality. It was, truly, the thing he feared the most. But he was used to dying in his dreams and, eventually, he was able to realize he was living in a fake world. But the others…they weren't used to these kinds of things. They probably wouldn't have any way of realizing that the horror they were experiencing wasn't true…even though it felt so real.

He lay on his back. "Don't panic." He told himself. "Don't worry…" Sighing, he sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. Curiously, he squinted. If worrying and panicking brought him back to being a prisoner of his own fear, perhaps remembering happy things would bring him closer to his friends. He rolled his eyes. He could already hear Bonnie yelling 'Gaaaaaayyyyyy!' He chuckled at the thought of it.

Almost as soon as he had, a trap door appeared beneath him. From it, he heard the rise and fall of crashing waves on the seas. Hesitantly, he opened the trap door and the world beyond sucked him right in.

He let out a yell of surprise as he was hurled from the sky with a torrent of rain and flung into the sea. All around him, massive waves were rising and crashing. Foam moved up over his head. His heart started to beat fast, he started to pant. He felt something hard tightening around his ankle.

"No…no…" He shook his head. "It's fake, it's fake…" As he did so, he found it easier to swim. He kicked his feet and swam, keeping his head above the water and foam.

"KID!" A familiar voice yelled out in horror. "Oh my god…MIKE!"

Mike turned to the sound of the voice and saw a man on a miserable rowboat leaning over, looking out at Mike with utmost concern. He had dark brown hair that was blown into a mess by the wind, a square jaw and a buff structure. "Hey!" He called. "Who are you?!"

The man gripped his head with his hands. "Don't worry, kid! I'll get you out of there!" He looked around frantically in the boat and moaned. "Oh _jeez_!" He moved a foot over the edge of the boat and slipped into the water. Mike realized he had an anchor attached to his foot. The man gripped onto the boat firmly with one hand and stretched out the other to Mike. "Come on, kid! You can do it!"

Mike reached out and swam through the massive waves over to him, forcing panic away. He reached out and the man firmly clasped his wrist. "I've got you!" He hauled him in a mighty pull up and into the boat. Mike leaned over and grabbed the man's forearms and helped him in beside him with the anchor still linked to his ankle.

"You okay?" The man asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING SWIMMING AROUND IN THIS MESS?!" The man grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Oh, lookit me! I'm lil' Mike Schmidt and I just looooove swimming!" he mocked in a girly voice. "Oh, what a dashing doozy, it's raining, well OOPSY DOOSPY OH WELL I'LL JUST DIDDLY DAMN JUMP RIGHT IN."

Mike stared at him whilst the man glared at him in the eye. "…Bonnie?" He asked.

"Wa-" He dropped Mike and waved his hands madly around in an undecipherable gesture then dropped all anger and shock and gave him a dead look. "No, Mike," He said in a monotone voice. "It is I, Poseidon, and I am here to teach you the ways of the fish- WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" He shook Mike by the shoulders again.

"I just-"

"How did you get here?! How long have you been swimming around this sea? Are you woozy? How's your head?"

"N-j-I'm fine!" Mike pushed him away. "I'm-"

"Kid, you gave me a heart attack out there!" Bonnie yelled to him sternly. "I've been out in this storm for God knows how long all by myself and the next thing I see is you drowning out there all alone in the water?! Do you have any idea what it would be like if we all _lost_ _you_? Do you know how I could live with myself watching you drown to death? News flash, kid, it wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows! As a matter of fact every day would look just like this!" He gestured to the torrent around them. "Do you have _any_ _idea_ what that would be like? What would we do without you?" His eyes grew stern. "What would _Foxy_ do knowing you were dead?"

Mike stared at him, unsure how to respond to his many questions and wondering if they were all just rhetorical.

Bonnie sat back and sighed, running a hand over his face. He pinched his forehead. "Listen, kid," He started. "I don't know if you've noticed, and you probably haven't, but life got a whole lot better with you around. We spent twenty years without anyone but each other and a couple ghosts. You think we didn't get on each others' nerves? You think we were always laughing and playing jokes on each other and running around the town? Not a chance. It was boring. It was depressing. We had nothing to do except sing the same song over and over again in the day time and talk about to the ghost kids at night…And then, you came back and just a little bit…it was like old times again. It was like we had a purpose again, a friend we could talk and laugh with, a link to the world outside so that we didn't feel so worthless anymore." He stopped and looked up at Mike, who was just staring at him.

"…Why me?"

"Kid, I don't know." Bonnie shrugged at him. "Maybe it's because you would come by every single day and talk to each and every one of us. Maybe it was because you always just loved to talk about everything all day long. Maybe it was because…you were the only little kid who treated us like we were more than a bunch of toys made for kids." He looked up at Mike and his face softened. He shook his head. "I wonder if you even remember." He sighed. "You treated us like…we were the same as any other adult. 'Yes ma'am', 'Yes sir'…you always wanted to hear us tell you stories or help out around the restaurant like you lived right there with us. I mean, Vince and Jeremy were great friends of ours back then…well, Jeremy was weird, but you get the idea. But they were always cautious to act normal during the day and not let anyone else know who we were because they understood that we were different." He shrugged at Mike. "But you just…didn't. You didn't understand what made one of us different from a living human being, and you didn't understand why we had to act differently around everyone else. And I guess…that's what makes you special. You've never treated us any more different than the family you were born with." He smiled.

"That sounds pretty gay."

Bonnie looked up at him with a frown and Mike gave him a joking grin. Bonnie shoved him.

"I'm trying to give you a pat on the back!" He retorted. Pausing, he looked around them. The relentless rain had ceased to a gentle drizzle. The massive roaring waves had turned into soft laps. The thick, black, churning clouds had faded to smooth gray ones that were breaking apart to let in streaks of sunlight. "Well what do you know?" he ran a hand through his hair.

"Bonnie, we have to find the others and get out of here- they're all trapped, too." Mike said.

"Out here?" Bonnie looked around, he glanced nervously at the ocean water rippling around them. He looked to the empty horizon. "Aw…man…do you know how long it's going to take to find all of them out in the middle of this ocean? We don't even have oars!" Thunder softly growled overhead.

"Stop worrying," Mike said. "That only makes it worse!"

"What do you mean?"

"This world isn't real!" Mike threw an arm to gesture to the sky and sea around them. "It's just an illusion that ghost is putting you into!"

Bonnie frowned at him, listening but not entirely willing to believe his words.

"How do you think I got here in the first place? I don't have a fear of _drowning_; I have a fear of cars!"

Bonnie snorted and Mike gave him a blank look. He shook his head. "The point is, we can get out of here as long as you realize you aren't scared and alone."

"I'm not _scared_ and _alone_." Bonnie frowned and folded his arms.

"Then why did I have to come in here and save you?" Mike crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. "Hm?" He leaned forward. "Hm?" He raised his eyebrows higher. "_HM_?"

Bonnie's scowl increased, but he rolled his eyes. "Alright _fine_. Maybe I was _kind_ of lonely." He admitted. "But I'm not anymore."

"And from now on you won't be," Mike added, looking up at the sky and waiting for the scene to disappear. "Right?"

Bonnie rolled his eyes. "Right." He grumbled.

The boat suddenly swayed and tipped over, the water parted, and Mike and Bonnie were falling down a pit of fast-moving darkness. Before they could scream or yell in surprise and panic, they hit something hard.

Mike grunted and pushed himself off of the…ceiling. He was standing upright on a white popcorn ceiling. Looking beneath him (more like above him) he saw the blue-carpeted floor. Bonnie sat up and followed his eyes, looking around him.

"WHAT IS THIS." He yelled, waving his arms in outrage.

"The maze." Mike answered, pacing the ceiling and causing the little tiny popcorn pieces to sprinkle onto the carpet. "I wonder if we should move around…" He rubbed his chin.

" ' . . ."

Bonnie jumped and looked around; his eyes were as big as saucers. "What was that?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "Nothing important." He helped Bonnie to his feet and briskly walked down a hallway. "Come on, we've got to find the others. I wonder if I can summon them like I kind of summoned you…?" he tilted his hand.

"You mean each and every one of us is trapped somewhere alone?" Bonnie asked, briskly walking in step beside him.

"Yep."

"Jesus," He moved a hand through his hair. "Chica's probably having a panic attack- she _hates_ being alone."

At that moment, a big, laboratory-looking door appeared in the middle of the blue-carpet floor above their heads. Mike snapped his fingers and pointed to it. "Alright, it's right through there." He looked around at his surroundings. They couldn't climb the walls to reach it and, since gravity wasn't doing its part, they couldn't simply fall to it.

"Let me on your shoulders." Mike said, giving Bonnie a shove.

"What?"

"Give me a boost up to the door and I'll pull you up."

Bonnie snorted, letting him climb up on his shoulders. "_You're_ gonna pull _me_ up?"

"Well," Mike said, reaching for the doorknob. "You're not as heavy as you were as a big animatronic."

"Did you just call me fat?"

Mike turned the doorknob. The door opened downward, swinging and hitting him in the head. "Ow."

"That's what you get."

"I didn't call you fat!" Mike reached up and grabbing hold of the doorframe, struggling to pull himself through. He reached on the other side of the door and felt around for something to help him. As he crawled out, he realized he was coming up through the ground of the new world beyond the hallway. The sky was overcast and the whole world was a strange pale color.

As he sat up and looked around, he saw that he was at the rather familiar three-way intersection far behind the restaurant. He shuddered as he caught sight of the giant cemetery with the gaping, yawning graves.

"Uhh, Bonnie?" Mike asked as he lied down on his stomach and reached his arms down to help Bonnie up. "What _else_ is Chica afraid of besides being alone?"

"Heck, I don't know." He grunted, grabbing hold of Mike's forearms and kicking up at the walls to help escape the hallway. As he pushed himself out of the doorway in the road and fell onto the asphalt, he looked up and around and cringed at the graveyard. "You know…come to think of it, I think I remember her saying something about the plague."

"Oh," Mike wrinkled his nose. "That's pretty bad."

Bonnie shrugged and looked around. "To be honest, I never really understood her fear of it. I mean, nowadays you can get treatment for it if you really rush to the hospital- and we're robots, we can't get any diseases." He raised an eyebrow at the graveyard. "Then again, she hated seeing anyone in trouble."

"That sounds like her." Mike nodded.

"Come on," Bonnie waved his hand and started towards the restaurant. "Knowing Chia, she'll probably just go home." He turned around and walked backwards, looking at Mike as he did so. "Or at least try to find one of us. That's what she always-

"MIKE!"

Bonnie whirled around and Mike looked around his shoulders to see a girl bolting down the street towards them. She had blonde hair in a big, tight bun on her head, wide hips and a light yellow sundress. She threw her arms around Mike and bear hugged him so tight he thought his back would break.

"Good…to…see…you…" He choked.

She let go of him. "Oh, gosh, I thought you were dead at the warehouse! Mike, this is _horrible_! Everyone in town is dead and the restaurant is destroyed and-" She stopped as she caught sight of Bonnie. He waved to her a little shyly. "AND WHO THE HELL IS THAT?!"

Mike raised his eyebrows and Bonnie gasped. "Chica!"

Chica raised her eyebrows. "Bonnie, is that you?" She looked him up and down and giggled. "Your nose is small."

"No it isn't!" His face went crimson. "It's normal!"

Mike grinned. "Now that you pointed it out, it is kind of small, compared to rest of him."

"SHUT UP!"

Mike and Chica laughed at him.

"Yeah, well you're fat!" He told Chica.

She looked down at herself. "I'm not fat. I'm huggable."

Bonnie sent his palm to his face and shrugging, slumping his shoulders. "I guess it's not that important right now.

Mike tugged on Chica's arm. "The point is; this whole world is just an illusion. It's all fake."

Chica blinked and looked around. "Really? But it feels so real…"

"Chica, I seriously doubt the plague will make a comeback and desolate Quietville." Bonnie told her.

"It's an illusion put on by that evil ghost Vincent was talking about." Mike explained. "We've got to get everyone out of the maze."

Chica frowned sadly. "You mean…everyone is all alone in their own little world?"

"Yes, but don't worry about it." Mike urged. "He wants you to feel alone- worrying about it makes it worse."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Chica grinned. "Let's get out of here!"

The ground fell away beneath them. Mike braced himself to hit the blue-carpet floor of the maze halls. He landed with a soft thump.

"That wasn't so bad."

The wind was knocked out of him as Bonnie fell on his back. "Ow." He squeaked as Chica fell on Bonnie and let out a strangled breath. Chica and Bonnie rolled off of his back on either side of the hallway.

"Some maze," Chica said, getting to her feet. She laughed. "Boy are we gonna get it from Freddy when we find him."

Bonnie laughed. "Yeah: 'I told you this was a horrible idea!'" He mocked in a squawky parrot voice.

"'_What_ were you _thinking_?!'" Chica mocked in a deep voice.

"I can't tell what'll be worse; hearing Freddy run his mouth about what a horrible idea this was or hearing Foxy panic about Mike." Bonnie snorted.

Chica laughed and raised her eyebrows. "We'll never hear the end of it."

At once, two set of glass double doors appeared on either side of the hallway. They looked identical, but over one was the image of a hook and over the other was the image of a top hat. Chica's eyes grew in wonder as she looked at them.

"Whoaaa…" She smiled. "Mike and I will get Foxy in a jiffy."

"Alright, I'll get Floozbear." Bonnie said.

"Wait," Mike held up his hands. "I'm not sure we should all split up like this. We might get badly separated again."

Bonnie tilted his head. "I have a feeling we'll be able to find a way to get back together if that happens."

Mike nodded. "Come on." He waved to Chica and they pushed through the double doors under the symbol of the hook.

The scene, for a split second, took Mike back twenty years, back when he had no cares or worries and back when everything was safe. The feeling left almost as soon as it came.

"Yikes…" Chica said as they entered the warped world, seeing dead employees and animatronics scattered across the floor. The room was still and dead.

"What happened here?" Mike asked, walking farther into the room and looking around.

"Foxy's always kind of felt like the protector of the team." Chica said, stepping over a body. "He's kind of relaxed about it now- like that time the police chased us over a bridge. He trusts Vincent with most of the ghost-related problems, but I have a feeling if we were stranded in the middle of the forest and a bear came after us- Foxy'd have him dead, skinned, and roasting over an open fire in no time." She said.

"So his greatest fear would be hurting his friends." Mike concluded.

"I was gonna say his greatest fear would be seeing all of his friends dead." Chica said. "_Hurting_ his friends…"

"Wait, sshh…" Mike held up his hand. They could hear someone sobbing in the other room.

"That sounds like it's coming from the hallway." Chica said to him. They hurried to the hallway and saw Foxy on his knees with his back to them, sobbing over a little body. "Foxy!" she called out to him.

He turned suddenly to them, still holding the child in his arms. Mike frowned. "Hey is that _me_?" He gnashed his teeth. "Yikes that looks painful."

Foxy's eye widened. "I…I don't under…" He shook his head.

"It's all an illusion." Chica said in a mysterious voice, waving her arms. "It's not real."

He suddenly rose to his feet and ran to them, hugging them both tight. Mike and Chica both cringed at the strength of his grip. "I'm so sorry," He told them.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Mike croaked. "It just an illusion."

Foxy hugged them tighter.

"We forgive you, we forgive you, just let go!" Chica croaked in a strained voice.

He let go of them and they both gasped for air, breathing heavily.

Foxy gave a shaky chuckle. "S-sorry, guess I don't realize my own strength sometimes." He rubbed the back of his neck.

After catching her breath, Chica tilted her head to look up at Foxy. "Wow."

"I know, he's really tall." Mike said.

"Not _that_!" Chica said. She gestured to Foxy's, long, wild, crimson hair. "You need to _brush_ that!"

Foxy rolled his eye with a smile. "It's at th'top of my list." He said. He patted Mike on the shoulder. "And what've you been up to, laddie?"

"Looking for you guys, really." Mike shrugged.

Foxy smiled. "Course ye were." Around them, the blood and the bodies vanished from the floor, and the distant sound of sirens disappeared.

"And it looks like we found everyone." He said. "Bonnie's across the hall getting Freddy…" Mike frowned and looked back the way they'd come. "Do you think it's that simple to walk out the doors again?"

Chica smiled. "We won't know until we try." She headed for the front doors.

Mike and Foxy followed her. Mike looked up at the ceiling and all around the old restaurant. He knew the place wasn't real, but he didn't complain. So long as he had the chance to look around the place once more, it was like he was walking through some old home. It was a lot quieter than the real place, and a lot grayer too. Even so, it had the same floors, walls, decorations, and set up. The old details resurfacing memories that had almost vanished in the back of his mind. He would never see the place again.

Mike looked at Foxy. He was looking straight to the path ahead, but it was obvious he was still very unsettled. "You aren't guilty are you?" He asked

"Hm?" Foxy raised an eyebrow at him.

"About the illusion; you don't feel like you had something to do with it, do you?"

He smiled. "Nay, I s'pose I'm just a bit shaken. Not ev'ry day you're livin' in a world where ya murdered your best friend, eh?"

Mike half chuckled. "Guess not."

In front of them, Chica pressed against the double doors and they opened. "Hey, look! It was easy! All we had to do was just open the do-"

The whole building turned onto its side, dumping them out of the illusion and sending them plummeting through darkness. They fell a short ways and landed back in the blue-carpeted hallway. Mike rubbed his head and glowered.

"What is it with this place and falling?" He grumbled.

"GUYS!"

Mike got to his feet and saw a man in a black vest and white button up shirt hugging Foxy, Chica, and Bonnie all at once. "I FREAKIN LOVE YOU GUYS!"

"Good to know." Foxy grunted as Freddy let go of them.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Chica and Foxy. He frowned at Foxy. "Why are you so tall?" He shook his head. "Don't answer that." He sighed. "Let's just...find Vincent and Marionette and get out of here."

"Jeez…This must be horrible for Vincent…Knowing the evil ghost likes to torment _guilty_ people." Chica said. They all cringed with her words. A door appeared at the left of them in the hallway's wall; a basic wooden door.

"If we wanna get outta here quick, the best idea is to split up." Foxy said. "There's five of us, three of us will go get Vincent and the latter will go after Marionette."

"No, I'll go after Marionette." Bonnie said sternly. "You won't understand how to reach her she's….it's…" He shook his head. "Well, it's complicated. Besides, I can only imagine how tormented Vincent's gonna be. He'll need all of the help he can get to get out of there."

"You want to go _alone_?" Freddy asked, frowning. He let out a heavy sigh. "Alright then. Be careful."

Bonnie nodded.

They each gave him a wave before opening the basic wooden door and entering it, leaving him alone.


	27. Chapter 27

Bonnie took a deep breath, trying to remember the ways Mike had been able to summon the doors to the others. It was by remembering something about them; something happy or funny about who they were. But it wasn't so simple with Marionette- that, he knew.

Marionette wasn't the kind of person to let her own problems- her own sadness- poison the others. That's what it was lately. Twenty years ago, it was the opposite. She didn't want her joy to annoy anybody. It was a difficult thing she was going through…and not opening up to the others had created a more difficult way for Bonnie to reach her now.

Bonnie racked his brain for something that would bring him a door to her. _What would she do if she was here now?_ He thought to himself. _She'd cross her arms and comment about what everyone else was talking about. _He frowned. But that wasn't her- really her.

He ran his hands through his head, trying to think of a memory that would surface something he could use. "She likes 80's music…" He rolled his eyes. They all did- they all _lived_ in the eighties. "Her favorite song was….No, that wasn't it…" he shook his head. "She liked to play the piano because…because…" he rubbed his temples. "Jeremy taught her how. He played the piano." He shook his head. "That ditz didn't just play the piano- he played in the damn orchestra. But, oh no, don't bother to tell us anything about yourself, Jeremy, just hide in the office the whole time and…" He trailed off as a set of double doors appeared on the wall to his left. They were regal doors, white with elegant designs. Jeremy's doors.

"Jeremy…?" Bonnie frowned. "How long has he been here?" He shook his head. He couldn't help Jeremy now; the task at hand was finding Marionette…But then, Jeremy had been close to her. He would have a better idea of who she was and would know how to find her. Bonnie ran a hand through his hair. "Long time no see, eh?" He muttered, grabbing the elegant handle of a door and pushing it open.

He was now standing on the second and top balcony of a massive and elegant theater. An orchestra on stage was performing Mozart's 40th Symphony. People filled the rows of seats on the ground floor and in the balconies and even in the opera boxes. Bonnie looked over the golden railing of the balcony to the orchestra below.

The sound of wailing violins, moaning cellos and bases, whistling flutes and crying clarinets filled the theater in a minor key. It was beautiful and somber all at once.

Bonnie squinted to look at each person in the orchestra. He looked at the conductor, the flute section, the clarinet section, the violin section, the cello section, the bass section, the French horn section, the trumpet section, the trombone section-

"He isn't down there." A voice said from behind. "I've already checked."

Bonnie whirled around and gasped.

She was just a little shorter than him. She wore a black, sleeveless a-line dress over a white, long-sleeved button up shirt. Black and white striped leggings snaked out of little black boots on her feet. Her short hair was snowy white and parted over her right eye, completely covered her left eye. It was cute and soft and fell into shape with the rest of her young, heart-shaped face. She had a little nose and a very light natural blush to her cheeks. Her eyes were shadowed in the dim light of the theater.

"H-hi." Bonnie stammered as he saw her. He swallowed. "I'm just l-looking for…m-my name is…"

She frowned with thin, almost silver eyebrows. "Bonnie, I know who you are."

"Y-you know my name?" His eyebrows rose.

"Bonnie, it's me, Marionette."

Bonnie paused and looked her up and down again. Little familiarities fell into place. He felt disappointed. "But you're _hot_!"

She crossed her arms and leaned on her hips, raising her eyebrow while her eyelid drooped dramatically over her eye. "So I was ugly before?"

"Well, yeah, _kinda_!" He hissed.

She gave him a somewhat outraged look.

"Alright, come on," Bonnie nodded in the direction of the door behind them. "Let's get back to the others. They're getting Vincent right now."

"Not yet."

He stopped and turned to her in surprise. "What do you mean 'not yet'? Marionette, this whole place is-"

"An illusion, I know." She finished for him. "I was able to get out of my own."

"Well…good." Bonnie nodded. "Good for you, now let's go."

She turned to face him. "I'm not leaving without Jeremy." She said sternly.

"Marionette, the others are waiting for us!" He urged. "Besides, we all have bodies to return to and Jeremy doesn't."

She cringed at his words and took a step back from him. "Fine. I'll find him myself. I can do it on my own."

"Look, I'm sorry, but I told the others I would get you and meet them as quick as I could so we can get out of this place!" He spoke urgently, but it was obvious she wasn't moving. He gave a sigh. Of course she wouldn't. "I'll help you find him." He said.

She smiled a bit. "Thank you."

"Now, where do we look?" Bonnie walked over to the golden railing to look at the orchestra and the theater again. "This doesn't really look like a horror land…"

"That's what stumps me." Marionette said, joining him. "Jeremy loved the orchestra- he even performed a few times."

"And you're _sure_ he's not here?"

"I've run around the entire theater several times, I've even gone up and down every single row in the audience and the orchestra. They're…fake people. The music is real but the people are…they're like mannequins." She took a deep breath.

"Have you tried blindly calling his name like an idiot?" Bonnie asked.

"No…"

He quirked an eyebrow at her and gave her a little nod.

"JEEERREEEMMYYYYYYYYY!" She cried through cupped hands. Her yell echoed through the entire theater and Bonnie cringed. He knew the place was fake, but he also knew that if this was a real theater, every single person would be turned and looking straight at them. "That did nothing."

"Hm…" Bonnie scratched his chin. "Well, maybe this is all some kind of mask." He said. "You know, how someone doesn't want others to know the truth about them-so they put a mask on. You know, like _you_ do all the time." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay! So I didn't tell you guys Jeremy and I were close- _big_ _deal_!" She threw up her arms.

He raised an eyebrow. She crossed her arms and mirrored his look. He leaned forward and squinted his eyes at her.

"_What_?" She hissed.

"Marionette, I don't even know if I can trust you." Bonnie said, crossing his arms. "You know, you're kind of a liar and a sneak, right?"

Her face went red and her eyes widened, but she kept her scowl and tightened her jaw. "And?"

Bonnie frowned. "Never mind." He rolled his eyes. "So what's the plan, Mary O'nette?"

* * *

"Where are we?" Mike asked.

The four were all walking through a long hallway. The walls were gray and the floors were a drab tile. It was dimly lit. The hallway was long and hadn't curved once.

"I don't know," Foxy said from his side. "But I get the feelin' it isn't very cheerful."

"Hey," Chica said. "I think I hear something."

A muffled noise was coming from the end of the hallway. It was strange and garbled- something they couldn't make out. Freddy rolled his eyes and mumbled something.

"What is it?" Chica asked him with a smile.

"Guys, I love the whole adventure beyond the restaurant thing, really, but why do we always have to do the dangerous things?" He muttered.

"Yikes…" Mike said as they neared the end of the tunnel.

The room beyond it was huge. Staircases and pathways jutted out of the walls, winding around the room and leading to nowhere. In the middle of the room there was a staircase that swirled up towards the top of the room. At the end of the staircase was a massive, shadowy, green bubble radiating green light against the walls and giving off an uneasy feeling. From the bubble, garbled voices could be heard. They were muffled and couldn't be understood. Inside the bubble was the shadow of a person.

"Hm." Chica twisted her jaw. "That doesn't look too good."

"Nope." Freddy looked up at the bubble with

"Figure it'll take some time tryin' to get him outta there." Foxy said.

"Yep."

They all stared at the bubble while the strange, warped voices filled their ears. None of them were quite sure of what to say or what to do that was going to fix the mess they saw.

Freddy blinked. "Alright, let's go." He grabbed the railing of the staircase and started hiking up the stairs. Chica and Mike followed him and Foxy headed up behind them.

As they climbed the winding staircase, Mike started to tire. He felt ashamed. _Jeez, they're just stairs…_He watched Freddy and Chica climbing already farther ahead of him.

"Alright, lad?" Foxy asked behind him.

"I'm fine." Mike said, feeling stupid. He shook his head and tried to move faster. He looked up ahead to see how far Chica and Freddy were in front of him. About ten steps above him, there was a black, shadowy figure with white, empty eyes, staring at him. He gasped and stumbled.

"Careful, lad." Foxy said, catching him.

Mike looked again and the shadow was gone. He shook his head and looked up. Chica and Freddy hadn't stopped- they hadn't seen the shadow, and neither had Foxy. Forcing himself not to panic, he started heading up again. As he did, he looked up at the bubble and was able to make out five clusters of shadow within it around Vincent.

His eyes trailed down the staircase. Five steps in front of him was a white-eyed, shadowy figure. Its gaped wide at him.

"A-aahh!" He stumbled and fell backwards again.

"What is it?" Foxy asked, frowning at him. "Hang onto the guardrail if y'keep slippin'."

"Hey!" Chica and Freddy had stopped and were looking at them from over the guardrail. Chica waved to them. "Is everything okay down there?"

"I-I just…" Mike ran a hand through his hair and paused. "Yeah, everything's fine I'm just…not good at climbing stairs."

Chica and Freddy exchanged a look. Chica smiled. "Alright, good luck!" She and Freddy resumed their hike.

Mike rubbed the back of his neck and followed as best he could, looking down at his feet and feeling like an idiot. _Not good at climbing stairs. _He thought. _I didn't even think you _could_ get exhausted as a ghost._ He looked up.

Standing right in front of him, eyes wide and mouth gaping, was the shadowy ghost. Before he could scream, it advanced on him and he was enveloped in darkness.

It was dark. Mike could barely understand his surroundings. He forced himself not to panic and looked around. The others were gone- off still climbing the staircase, he imagined. In the darkness, his eyes focused on the shadowy outline of a person. Its eyes were white and empty and scowling, its mouth was closed.

"Who are you?" Mike called out.

The person stayed still and silent for a moment. When it spoke, its voice was garbled. "I don't understand you."

Mike frowned. "Understand…what do you mean?"

"You're not like the rest." It said. "I guess I understand that puppet finding her own way around…I didn't look hard enough with her but she'll be stuck in the other maze forever." Mike watched it shake its head. "But you're different. Whenever you're around things are…better. But what's so special about you?"

"I…I don't know." Mike backed away frowning. "I haven't really noticed…" he shook his head. "Why are you keeping people here?"

The ghost paused in speaking, considering his words. "Mike, you and I have different ways of dealing with problems. You like to put the past behind you, it seems. I, on the other hand, like to make sure justice is served-whether it in the Earth life…or the afterlife."

"_Justice_?" Mike echoed. "You call this _justice_? You call keeping my friends prisoner here _justice_? If you're talking about Vincent- he got his punishment!" He frowned. "And why do _you_ care in the first place?"

"Why do _I_ care?" the ghost echoed. "Everyone's got something their guilty of- and everyone's got something they need to be punished for." It turned around and folded its arms behind its back. "Justice might have come for those five, but it never came for me. Once I left, everyone forgot about me…and I was all alone…No one came back for me, no one _cared_…Do you have any idea what that's like?"

Mike opened his mouth, but the ghost cut him off.

"Of course you don't. You're _you_. And I…" It clenched its fists. "I _hated_ you! I watched you run around- everyone just _loved_ you and for no reason…What can you do that's so great?" He turned on Mike and marched up to him. "You're not anything special, you know. You're no different from me!" It scowled. "I know what you really are- just a stupid little kid!" The ghost gave Mike a shove and he fell on his back.

Before Mike could get to his feet, he felt himself shrinking. "What?" He watched the shadowy ghost in front of him grow just a little taller as he became smaller and smaller. "What did you do to me?" he gasped at the sound of his high-pitched voice. "My voice- you made me a kid again!"

"That's right." The ghost snarled. "A useless, little kid…just like me." The ghost stepped out of the shadows into a tiny patch of dim light.

Mike gasped. The child before him was- well, at this point- just a little older than him. The entire top half of his head was broken and bloodied; streaks of red were trickling down his face.

"And I thought to myself," The ghost went on. "He's a little kid like me, right? I could probably take him out the same way, right? And I almost did…"

"You tried to kill me?" Mike's eyes widened. "W-wait a minute…" He looked at the kid's head again. "The Bite of '87…it wasn't Vincent who put those programs into Foxy and Mangle…it was _you_, wasn't it?"

The ghost half-smirked. "I figured they both have sharp teeth; why not? I figured then, they must remember what happened to me- and they'd shut that God forsaken place down…"

"But it didn't work- because Foxy fought off the programming and saved me."

The ghost scowled. "That didn't matter anyways. With Vincent being a prisoner of schizophrenia, he ended up causing the place to shut down without my efforts. I figured then, certainly then, justice would come." He clenched his fists. "But no. Just a few years later the place is back up and open for business." He scowled.

"But why do you hate…everyone?" Mike asked. "I guess I can understand keeping Vincent here, but why the others?" he looked at the ghost's head. "Who…who are you?"

* * *

"No, no, this wouldn't be a mask." Marionette said, pacing and rubbing her chin. Bonnie was leaning up against the golden railing and watching her. "Jeremy loved the orchestra- and he loved symphonies- this wouldn't be a mask, this is who he is. Although…" She rubbed her chin and squinted. "Never mind, I've got nothing."

"C'mon." Bonnie shrugged. "Think. He was your boyfriend- you can figure out something."

Marionette frowned. "He wasn't my…" She blinked and raised an eyebrow in genuine confusion. "Actually…I don't know."

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"I just…I don't know." She shrugged.

Bonnie tilted his head forward and raised his eyebrows at her. She made a face at him then rolled her eyes and resumed her pacing. "Really, though I don't understand why in the world we can't find him-or why his 'prison' is something he enjoys. Unless…" She gasped and clenched her fists. "Oh, I'm an idiot! Why didn't I see it before?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Maybe you're just stupid."

She ignored him. "This is all a _distraction_!" She groaned.

"What?"

"It's something created to keep us busy, look," She gestured to all of the people around the theater. "Every seat is filled. Jeremy created the illusion to fool us into looking through every seat at every little person to keep us busy and distracted while…"

"While…?" Bonnie waved his hand for her to elaborate.

"While he…I don't know-runs away?" Marionette asked. She pinched her chin. "Maybe it wasn't him that created the distraction- maybe the ghost made it to distract us." She slammed her fist into her palm. "The point is we've got to break the illusion. Perhaps yelling aloud will do the trick? Or maybe just to cease moving around will alert the ghost that we aren't looking around anymore-thus indicating that we're able to see through his plot to trap us and…_Bonnie_!" She turned and saw that he had leaped over the railing of the balcony and was making his way towards the symphony. "_What are you DOING_?!"

"Don't worry about it!" He laughed, jumping over the railing of the second balcony and marching down the red-carpeted aisle towards the stage. "It's not real, remember?" He climbed up on stage and waved his hands around the conductor's head, making faces and even shoving him a few times. "You should try this!" He ran over to a cellist and grabbed the cello and the bow from his hands. "Hey check it out." He raised the cello high over his head and prepared to smash it.

"Oh!" Marionette cringed and covered her eyes, unable to see the beautiful instrument- no matter how fake- smashed to pieces.

But Bonnie didn't have time to smash the cello. As he brandished it over his head, the cellist from whom he'd stolen the instrument stepped back and vanished. There was a little clicking noise from a pair of exit doors over to the far right. Bonnie lowered his hands and set the cello down- unable, himself, to smash it.

"Hey, Marionette!" He waved his arms and she hesitantly uncovered her eyes and looked at him. He pointed to the doors. "Have you been through there yet?"

"No," She said, gracefully leaping over the railings of the balconies and running to join him. "Most of the doors around the theater are fake."

"Well I think I just un-faked them." Bonnie raised an eyebrow at her as he headed towards the doors.

"There's no such thing as un-faking." Marionette rolled her eyes as she followed them.

"I don't remember you being an officer of the dictionary police." Bonnie responded. He grabbed the elegant handle of the exit doors and carefully cracked them open. On the other side was a hallway with a polished wooden floor and walls painted in a dim color. He turned to Marionette and raised his eyebrows smugly.

She blinked in surprise. "Nice going. You must've activated some sort of hidden switch when you moved that cello." She entered the hallway. While the orchestra behind them continued to play Mozart's piece, the singing of a cello could be heard louder from deeper in the hallway. "This way!" She said, running through the hallway.

"Hey, wait!" Bonnie started and chased her down the hallway. He struggled to keep up alongside her. "You _do_ realize this could be another trap, right?"

"Sshh!" she hissed. "I'm trying to listen!" At the end of the path, the hallway forked into a left hall and a right hall. Marionette stopped and closed her eyes to listen for the cello. "This way." She sprinted down the hallway to the left. Bonnie followed her blindly. The bath took two rights, a left, a right, and they were at another fork. Marionette paused and took a right. They took two lefts and a right. At the next fork, Marionette paused and took a left. The path went straight and took another left.

Bonnie frowned as he followed her. "Marionette, I feel like we're going in circles."

"Sh, I'm listening!" she stopped and paused. "This way!" She started running again and Bonnie gave a groan as he followed her. After a while of blindly following her, taking turns this way and that, he skidded to a halt and bumped into her.

She was turning her head this way and that with a look of misdirection in her eye. "I don't understand." She shook her head. "I keep following it…but it's not getting louder or closer or anything!"

"What did I tell you?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I figured it was going to be another trick. Maybe we should be running _away_ from the sound of the cello, since, you know, _following_ it would be the obvious choice?"

Marionette flushed red at the embarrassment of her own error. "You're right." She clenched and unclenched her fists and turned around and ran back, away from the sound of the cello. Bonnie followed her. They took turn after turn and even ran passed the hallway with the regal doors leading back into the theater. After more twists and turns of the maze, the loud sound of the cello and even the sound of the orchestra, began to die away.

"Uh…Marionette?" Bonnie asked as he followed her. "Do you think maybe there's a reason why there's so many obstacles to get to Jeremy?"

"Can't worry about that right now." Marionette said, looking straight ahead.

"I'm just saying, maybe he's keeping people out for a…" He trailed off as they took a sharp right. Marionette slid to a halt and Bonnie nearly bumped into her. They both looked down the hallway.

At the very end of the hallway, a room opened up. There was the figure against the opposite wall, wrapped up in strings and tied against it. Their head was drooping down and their arms were splayed out on either side of them, as if sewn into the wall. It was Jeremy.

* * *

"Who am I?" The ghost echoed Mike's question. "I'm the kid everyone forgot about. I'm the kid that no one cares about. The one that justice never came to." He turned his back on Mike and bowed his head. "And you know what happened when I tried to give up and go to the afterlife?" He spoke through gritted teeth. "They wouldn't let me in."

Mike remembered Vincent's words about reasons why ghosts were left on Earth. "Maybe it's because-"

"You know what it was like? Being alone on the earth plane for so long?" The ghost cut him off in a heated tone and Mike thought it better to keep his mouth shut. "Miserable." He lifted his head. "But I noticed something, being all alone. I realized there were others like me; beaten and broken with no one to avenge them…so I took it upon myself to punish those who didn't get what they deserved on Earth."

"But…" Mike frowned. "I still don't understand. Why do you hate me-why do you hate my friends?"

"Because!" The ghost whirled on him. "You came in and everyone suddenly forgot about _someone_ _being_ _killed_. You walked through the front door and suddenly it didn't matter!" It clenched his fists. "And what's worse- it almost happened again…But I wouldn't let it."

"Why hold a grudge for so long?" Mike asked. "It's not doing you any good- look at how miserable everyone is here!"

"If they're here, they _deserve_ it." The ghost narrowed his empty eyes at Mike. He looked at him loathingly. "You just love to forgive and forget, don't you?" He growled. "Well you know what, _kid_? Not everyone deserves forgiveness. And right now, I'm pretty pissed off that you 'set free' some of the people I was keeping here." His eyes narrowed. "But I guess the only reason you're here is because my guard dog didn't do a good job warning you away." He stood up with a wicked smirk. "Well you know what? You've got nothing here to make you special." He shoved Mike to the ground and stepped on his shoulder. "And you haven't even got your miserable little friend to save you now…"He kicked Mike away with his foot and crossed his arms. "Your turn, kid."

Mike got up and frowned. He clenched his fists, then let them hang loose at his sides. "No."

"Coward." The ghost gave him a harder shove and knocked him off of his feet.

Mike got up again.

The ghost gave him another shove. "Too afraid?"

"No." Mike got to his feet again, with more difficulty this time.

"Too ready to 'put it all behind you'?" He shoved Mike to the ground more forcefully. "Not so easy to put it behind you when you're still feeling the sting of it, huh?"

Mike struggled to his feet. "Doesn't matter. Shoving you back won't do any good."

The ghost clenched his fists angrily and gave Mike a hard blow to the face that sent him tumbling backwards. He grinned awfully in satisfaction. "See? Nothing special about a stupid kid on the ground."

Mike held touched the spot on his face where the ghost had hit him before struggling back to his feet.

Angrily, the ghost landed a harder blow on him, this time giving him a hard kick so that he slid across the ground. His furry boiled as he watched Mike get to his feet again, looking at him with the same simple expression. He yelled. "STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!"

"Like what?" Mike asked.

The ghost clenched his fists. "Don't pull that with me- you know what you're doing! Stop giving me that blank-eyed look like you don't know why you're here!" He ran to him and landed a blow to his gut. "Well? What're you gonna do, huh? What're you gonna do, _kid_?"

"I dunno," Mike said, stumbling to his feet. "Brush it off for now, I guess." He brushed off his clothes. "Lying on the ground won't fix it."

Incredulously, the ghost twitched and grinded his teeth. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Who set you up for this? Vincent? One of the _others_?"

"No one." Mike said.

"I don't get it." The ghost spat. "What is it with you- you take a licking and you keep on ticking, and for what? Your 'friends' are still idiot robots according to the public- you're still living off of a lousy paycheck. When has it ever paid off?"

"I don't know. Never, I guess." Mike shrugged. "There's always a time to be sad about things, but there's no sense in hanging onto it. If you keep concentrating on all the things that hold you down, how will you ever know what all you can see by looking up?" He looked at the bruise on his arm he'd earned from the ghost's blow. "Not everything is balanced out. Some bad things happen for no reason at all."

"That's not the way things work." The ghost hissed. "There's always a way to bring justice."

"What justice can you bring yourself after getting a mosquito bite? Sometimes you can kill the mosquito, but most of the time it flies away. The only thing you can really do is put a band aid on it until it goes away. It still itches, but scratching it will only make it worse."

"So?" The ghost snarled.

"So, the good guys don't always win. Sometimes you just have to take defeat. It's not fun, and sometimes it can hurt for a _really_ long time. Even though you might feel better lying down brooding, you'll never solve anything unless you look for what good you do have, even if it's only a little bit." Mike looked at the ghost. "There's a time where you've got to take responsibility for your mistakes. You might feel bad about doing them, but blaming someone else or shoving it under the rug won't solve it or make you a better person." He shrugged his shoulders. "You might be dead, but you don't have to be alone."

The ghost stared at him with a face locked in a scowl. He snorted. "You don't get it at all." He gave Mike a hard shove and turned his whole world dark.

"But you will eventually."

* * *

Bonnie and Marionette exchanged a look and walked briskly down to the end of the hallway to meet the person. The prisoner lifted his head at the sound of their approaching footsteps. He was pale and looked like he'd taken a good beating, but it was still him.

"Jeremy," Marionette started. "What happened to you?" She shook her head. "Never mind. We've got to get you out of here." She knelt down in front of him and looked at the strings binding him against the wall.

"What…" Jeremy frowned. "W-who are you people?"

Marionette blinked in surprise for a moment before remembering that she didn't exactly look her usually self. Before she opened her mouth to respond to his question, he cut her off.

"Never mind, just…go away."

"Go away?" Marionette echoed. "But we came here to rescue you!"

"I-I'm sorry, but I really don't deserve your help." He heaved a sigh. "I've already tried to escape several times…The only way not to get tortured around here is do j-just do what he wants."

"Well, _we_ didn't do what he wanted and _we're_ fine." Bonnie shrugged and folded his arms. "Isn't that right, Marionette?"

Jeremy's blue eyes widened. "W-wait a minute…" He squinted at Bonnie. "Bonnie?" he turned to Marionette and his round blue eyes widened. "Marionette? You're alive?! I-I thought you were dead!" His face turned a pale shade of pink "You look…different." He shook his head. "W-what are you _doing_ here?" Fear spread on his face. "You _broke_ _out_?"

"And we're here to help you!"

"You shouldn't!" Jeremy looked at her desperately. "He won't let you get away with this. He…" His eyes clouded fearfully. "I can get you out of here. He can take his anger out on me- I'm used to it. But Marionette," He looked at her pleadingly. "You have to promise me you'll never come back here, ever."

She blinked at him and hesitated. "No, Jeremy, I'm not leaving without you. Even if you can't come…all the way back, you don't deserve to be locked up here."

His eyes filled with despair. "Marionette please, listen to me! I know we haven't seen each other in a while and…we have a lot to catch up on." He bowed his head. "But I'm sorry. He's already going to be mad at you for breaking out…I don't want him to hurt you anymore."He stared at her and tightened his jaw in miserable frustration. He threw a pleading glance at Bonnie.

Bonnie, standing behind Marionette, briefly caught his eye and gave him a tiny nod in acknowledgment.

"I'm not leaving this place until I set you free." Marionette said, her bottom lip quivering. She clutched his arm. "I don't care if you can't come back with me- you don't deserve to be here like this! I-I can help you, I can get you out of here!"

Jeremy looked at her pleadingly and miserably. He heaved a heavy sigh and slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry," He pointed to each of them and a tiny string inched over and grabbed both Marionette and Bonnie by the ankles. "You can't."

Bonnie reached his arms around Marionette and held her back. She screamed at him and kicked and thrashed reaching and grabbing out desperately to take hold of Jeremy. The strings around their ankles tightened and pulled them through the floor, down, down, down out of the room, away from the sound of the symphony and even farther away from Jeremy, with Marionette's screams echoing in their fall.


	28. Chapter 28

**Alright, so I was wondering if my chapters were too long. Usually one chapter is around 10-11 pages (5,000) words. If any of you think they're too long (or it would just be easier for you if I shortened them) I can cut the chapters in half to around 5-6 pages. Let me know.**

Freddy groaned and opened his eyes. He was standing backstage at the restaurant. He turned his head in all directions, confused. His last memories were…awful, a stupid idea, really. He scratched his head and looked at Chica and Bonnie. They were each rubbing their heads and blinking their eyes, back to their normal animatronic selves. They each looked around in confusion.

"How did we get here?" Bonnie asked.

"Maybe we-

"Sh!" Freddy hissed, cutting off Chica. He hesitantly pulled back the curtains to the stage and looked out. It was late at night and there was no one else in the building, as far as he knew. "Alright, coast is clear." He wandered out on the creaking stage and jumped onto the tile floor.

"Who else is here?" He called out.

"I am." Foxy grumbled, walking out of Pirate Cove with a very lazy expression on his face. As if a light clicked on in his mind, he raised his eyebrows. "Where's Mike?"

Freddy rolled his eyes.

"I'm here too." Vincent stumbled out of the hidden hallway in his Springtrap suit.

Bonnie looked at Freddy as he swung his legs over the edge of the stage. "How'd you manage to get him outta there?"

"With difficulty." Freddy grumbled.

Vincent rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Sorry guys…Hey, has anyone seen the-"

"Vincent!" A chorus of voices attacked him and several pale blurs launched themselves at him, demanding immediate conversation from him simultaneously.

"Vincent, where did you GO?! You were gone for seven whole days!"

"Was it somewhere cool? Did you bring us back any presents?"

"We tried playing with Scrappy, but he cries a lot. Sometimes he just hugs us and cries. It's kind of weird, but we understand I guess."

"How come Freddy and the other robots are acting funny? They won't play with us either! And where's Mike- I don't like the new guy he's stupid!"

"Vincent, John told me we should watch Chanteys while you were gone- but I didn't listen to him!"

Vincent desperately tried to answer them at once. "Somewhere horrible- no, no presents. Scrappy? Oh you mean- wait, new guy? Acting fu-CHANTEYS?!"

John hid behind Chris. "It was Chris's idea!"

Chris turned on him. "You dared me!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute!" Vincent waved his hands to quiet them. He looked at Jess. "You said I was gone for a week?"

"No, I said you were gone for seven days."

Vincent's eyes widened. He looked at Chris. "No. It was horrible. No presents." He looked at John. "Cries a lot you said? Yeah, that sounds like him." He looked at Laura. "Did you say Freddy and the others were acting funny? And what's this about a new guy?"

"Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy are acting weird." Laura said, wrinkling her nose. "They keep walking stiff and talking stupid and after the restaurant closes- they go to sleep…" Her voice fell into a whisper. "_Standing up_! And they stay like that!"

Vincent looked at Freddy and the other animatronics. They exchanged confused looks and shrugged at him. Vincent turned Laura around to look at them. "How about now?"

Her eyes lit up and she and a few of the other ghost kids ran over to give them hugs. "You're better again!" She said with a smile.

"We…are?" Bonnie frowned.

"Well, that's a relief!" Chica smiled. "Whatever it is!"

Vincent rubbed his chin and tapped Laura on her shoulder again. "But what's this about a new guy?"

"_You_!" A voice from the front of the room yelled in outrage. They all turned around to see Rex standing in the entrance to the hallway leading to the security office with a night watch cap on his head. He was shining his flashlight at them. He scowled and marched into the room.

"You've got some explaining to do- after the shit you've been pulling all week!" He yelled at them. "What happened? You show us that you're different and then all this past week you act more fake than you have the entire time I've been working here! And where the hell is Mike? He disappears off of the face of the Earth without a phone call or anything! You know, Clove's been texting him nonstop every day and it's been dead silence from him. THAT'S creepy."

Vincent listened to Rex's words carefully. He snapped his fingers and rubbed his chin. "That ghost must've taken control of us and used us like puppets while we were out. Or…you guys, at least." He nodded to Freddy.

"Taken control of us?" The animatronics echoed in horrified synchronization.

"Yes, but only because we trespassed on his property." Vincent said, raising his hands to calm their panic. "He can't do it again so long as we don't go anywhere near that warehouse again."

The four sighed in relief.

"Vincent!" A pale ghost zipped out of the hidden hallway and clung to his arm. "Where did you go? Why where you gone for so long? You didn't go after that ghost, did you? I told you not to go! Why would you _do_ something like that? I've been left here all scared and alone I thought you said you were going to help me!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Vincent shoved him off of his arm. "You know what? You're right. That ghost is a lot more powerful than I imagined and a lot more dangerous than any ghost I've ever met. We should've stayed away from him."

Rex scowled at him. "Who…" His eyes widened as his eyes saw the ghosts. "Are those…_ghosts_?" He pointed to the little pale ghost hiding behind Vincent. "Is that a ghost?" He shook his head and waved his flashlight. "What's going on here?"

Foxy cringed as the bright light flashed into his eye. "Will y'turn the bloody light out?" he grunted.

Rex jumped as he realized that Foxy was standing closer to him than the rest of the animatronics. "What…are you talking about?"

Vincent took a deep breath and rolled his pale eyes. "We went ghost-hunting and got a little stuck. The ghost we found went and controlled the animatronics while he trapped our souls. We, quite literally, just broke out." He looked at Freddy. "Mike and Marionette could be at the warehouse…or his own house."

Rex stared at him with big eyes. "So that means…yes…?" He looked at the ghost children. "Those are _children_." He narrowed his eyes at Vincent. "You said…are those your children?" He looked just behind Vincent to the white ghost shivering behind him. He blinked a few times. "Huh…A ghost couple and their kids. That's trippy."

"What?" Vincent frowned.

"I guess it isn't too trippy. You guys can't have any of your own so you just adopt them."

Vincent looked behind him at the ghost. He wrinkled his nose. "No, no, no, no, _no_!" He waved his arms and shooed him away.

Bonnie and the ghost children laughed.

Rex ran his hand over his bright red Mohawk, looking stressed. "You're all insane."

The sound of an engine rumbled up to the entrance of the restaurant and was cut off. There was a pause in which everyone inside the building exchanged looks with each other. The front doors burst open and someone ran down the hall, sliding to a halt as they entered the main room.

"Mike!" Foxy smiled and waved at him.

Mike smiled. "Yeah hey…" He trailed off as he saw Rex. "What are you doing here?"

Rex scowled at him, but before he could start yelling, Freddy stepped forward and interrupted him.

"Apparently we've been out for a week and the ghost has been controlling our animatronic selves." He straightened his hat on his head. "How did you escape? Where's Marionette?"

Mike scratched his head and nodded. "Gone for a week? That explains a lot. My poor dog's eaten half of my armchair and half the food in the refrigerator's gone bad." He squinted and tilted his head. "I'm not entirely sure how I escaped. I pissed off that ghost, that's for sure." While the pale ghost shivered and went to clutch Vincent's arm, Mike continued. "Marionette's back at the house. She's really upset about something."

"It's Jeremy." Bonnie told him. "We found him, but he refused to leave. He helped us escape."

"He's stuck there?" Vincent frowned at him. At Bonnie's nod, he shook his head. "Awful…"

Mike ran a hand through his short hair. "So…what do we do now?" He asked.

Vincent sighed. "There isn't really anything to do but never go back."

"And hope boss doesn't fire you." Rex added, looking at Mike. "You've been gone for a week without any sort of notice. And if you ask me, I'd say he's pretty pissed about it."

Mike cringed. "I'll talk to him about it tomorrow during business hours." He said running a stressed hand through his short hair. "I guess I should get back home and tell Marionette you guys all made it out okay."

"Wait a minute…"Bonnie called after him as he turned to leave, frowning. "Did you come here by yourself?"

"Yep." Mike nodded.

"On the motorcycle?"

"Mmhm."

He raised his eyebrows. "I thought you were terrified of cars."

Mike shrugged. "I dunno…I guess after what happened at the warehouse I'm kind of…over it."

* * *

It had been three weeks since the incident in the warehouse. The warm June weather cast away the winter cold and snow and brought with it the bright colors and hot sun of summer. Mike was able to keep his job after convincing his boss he was injured badly for a week and had refused to go to the doctor. Surprisingly, the boss didn't think much of it at all. He was an old man and Mike felt bad about lying to him. Marionette's attitude soured for a week, but she didn't let any of the others at the restaurant take notice of it. Visits outside of the restaurant at night became more frequent, mostly to the ballpark to attempt at sports. They all made sure to steer clear from the small roads leading back towards the warehouse.

Mike sat on his sofa, looking at the snow globe sitting on the coffee table in front of him. It hadn't pulled any funny tricks in a while. Still, it was a nice little gadget and still worked well to put him to sleep.

"What're you doing?" Marionette asked from behind the couch, looking over his shoulder.

"Just looking at the snow globe." Mike said, picking it up and looking it over in his hands. The globe was shining and clear. It looked fresh from the factory. "I kind of wonder about where it came from. I mean…you guys have never seen anything like it before, and it somehow makes me fall asleep. I feel like there's more to it."

"There might be." Marionette nodded. "But you've had it for a few months and so far it hasn't done…anything." She shrugged. "It looks to me like a gift that was supposed to be given to someone and just…never got delivered."

"Yeah, you're right." He grabbed his shoes from beside the coffee table as Spike trotted into the room, looking much happier and better nourished. The dog wagged his stubby tail as Mike tied his shoes on and licked his face. "No, you can't come to work with me. You've already been fed; go play with your toys." He turned around to look at Marionette. "And _stop_ eating my food! I barely have enough money to feed Spike and myself!"

* * *

"Hey, we're here." Mike called, walking into the dimly lit restaurant with Marionette. "What're we going to do this time?" He walked down the black and white tile hallway towards the main room. "Baseball?"

In the main room, the animatronics and Vincent were sitting around a table and talking to each other. The ghost kids were huddled around Bonnie, looking at something being shown on an old video camera- one they probably stole.

"First, you're going to eat." Chica answered him, setting a hot pizza and a two liter bottle of Coke on the table.

Mike and Marionette exchanged a shrugging look and each took a sit. Marionette swept her cloak from around her shoulders and set it on the back of her chair, sitting down beside Bonnie. Mike sat across from her by Foxy, laying his arms on the table.

"What're we talking about?" He asked, helping himself to the food on the table.

"Politics." Vincent answered dully. "Just kidding."

"And, watch," Bonnie was saying to the ghost children, watching what was on the video camera with an evil grin. "I put it in slow motion, watch, this is the part where he falls. Running…running…aaaand….bbssshhhppfssshh crash down!" The children around him bursts into fits of laughter.

Mike gave him a look. "Are you showing them that video you took yesterday of me face planting into the dirt trying to catch the football?"

"…And watch this…BOOM! It hits him right in the _face_!" Bonnie continued and Mike rolled his eyes.

Marionette chuckled before taking a sip of her drink. "It wasn't necessarily funny until you were lying on the ground and the ball came and hit you in the face."

"Oh gee, _thanks_ for your sympathy!" Mike told her, and she laughed out loud. "I'd like to see _you_ get hit in the face with a football!"

Foxy nudged him. "Aren't goin' to the ballpark today." He said.

"Why not?" Mike frowned. "I brought an extra water bottle and everything."

"The four of us're gonna watch the new episode of Chanteys."

"Aw man…Marionette and I have already seen that one." He remembered that Foxy and the others couldn't exactly watch television whenever they wanted during the daytime. "Well good luck it's intense."

"Don't _spoil_ it." Chica thumped him in the back of the head as she walked behind them.

He looked at Vincent. "At least you can play cards with Marionette and I, right?"

"Sorry," Vincent shook his head. "I'm giving Scrappy therapy." He jerked his yellow, chipped head in the direction of the hidden hallway. "He's starting to get better. That ghost messed him up pretty bad. But since you aren't doing anything, and Freddy and the others will be busy watching Chanteys, you could watch the kids for me."

Mike looked at him uncertainly. "I don't know…I've never watched over kids before."

"Don't worry, they're good kids." Vincent assured him. "They love to play pretend, so just play along with whatever the theme is. Besides, you'll have Marionette with you and she's really good with kids." He looked at the clock. "I gotta go help Scrappy." He stretched and rose from the table, heading to the hidden hallway.

Freddy looked at the empty tray of pizza and the half empty bottle of coke. "Alright, everyone ready for Chanteys?"

"Yep." Bonnie nodded, setting down the video camera and standing to his feet.

Chica smiled and headed for the manager's office. "I've heard this one's really good." Freddy and Bonnie followed her.

Foxy stood up and patted Mike's head. "See you, lad." He went off to the manager's office with the others. Mike watched him disappear before turning his head back to the table. The ghost children were staring at him.

"Well…uh…what do you want to play?" He asked.

John shrugged. "Usually when Vincent's busy with Scrappy, we play war."

"War?" Mike raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah," John rubbed his chin as he looked at the other ghost kids. "This time let's do boys versus girls. Laura, you and Jess can have the front half of the restaurant with the office. Chris, Paul, and I will take the back half with the stage." Around him, chairs and tables were floating in the air and arranging themselves into barricades and forts.

"That's not fair!" Jess glared at him. "That's three against two!"

"It doesn't matter, Jess." Laura told her. "Two girls are smarter than three boys, anyways."

John wrinkled his nose. "Fine. You get Marionette also."

Marionette gargled her soda and held up rock and roll signs with her hands.

"But wait," Paul wrung his hands. "We're forgetting Mike."

"Mike doesn't play, he just watches like Vincent said." John told him.

"We can't do that…that's mean…"

John rolled his eyes again. "Alright, Mike can be the ambassador." He looked across the restaurant to where Laura and Jess were arranging their own forts and barricades. "Just so we have a base, what's your country's current economic state and form of government?"

Mike scratched the back of his neck as he watched the scene unfolding before him. "When I was your age I didn't know what 'economy' meant."

Laura smiled snootily at John. "Our government is a monarchy! I'm the Queen. And our country is rich because everyone can be anything they want!"

Jess smirked. "Yeah!"

Marionette frowned as she swirled the ice around her red plastic cup. "I don't think that's a very strong form of government there…"

John rolled his eyes at Laura's statement. "Ours is a monarchy too. Chris is my adviser and heir, and Paul is my military official." He tapped his chin. "Wait, no. Paul, you're my adviser. Chris you're the weapons expert."

Chris cracked his knuckles. "Our military equipment will consist of the basic models of artillery, we'll have at least one tank, some modern cannons…"

As he went on, Mike turned to look at Marionette, gripped the sides of his head, and mouthed 'What the hell?' She shrugged at him with an equally surprised expression and helped move a table onto the girls' side of the restaurant. The ghost children used their manifesting abilities to make ghost-weapons and fort material appear out of the air and organized them into their own battlegrounds. The room started to look like a war field.

Carefully, Mike stepped away from John and Laura's battle preparations and slipped into the manager's office where the four animatronics were watching Chanteys. Freddy was slumped to the far side end of the couch with his elbow on the arm of the seat and his chin in his paw. Bonnie was at the other end of the couch sucking down the last of his soda through a straw. Foxy was lying on the floor in front of the couch, nodding off every now and then, but being awakened sharply by Chica accidently kicking him. She was sitting on the edge of her seat and staring at the TV intensely.

_"Sebastian…"_ The voice from the television show said. _"There are very important things which I have lacked to tell you…It is due to my dispassionate personality I have not told you previously, and for that, I hope you can forgive me."_

"How's Chanteys?" Mike asked, already knowing what the episode had in store.

"Interesting." Freddy said with a bored expression on his face. "I think Chica's really into this one."

"KISS HIM YOU SLUT!" Chica screamed at the television.

Mike threw a glance at the television. "Oh yeah, Marionette loved this one. I thought it was actually really cute how…" He shook his head, realizing he was getting off topic. "Guys I'm a little worried about playing pretend with the ghost kids. They want to play _war_. That sounds…dangerous."

Bonnie rolled his eyes and looked at him. "Come on, they're kids. Of course they play things that seem dangerous. Have you ever played 'cops and robbers' or 'cowboys and indians'?"

"Well…yeah." Mike shrugged. "But-

"See? It's just kid stuff, it can't possibly be dangerous."He turned his attention back to the television.

_"You mean…You really do love me?"_One of the characters on television said.

"Would you lookit that." Bonnie raised his eyebrows.

"YES!" Chica yelled. "NOW BANG HIM."

"_Chica_!" Freddy gasped. Bonnie threw back his head and laughed.

Mike realized he wasn't getting his point across to them and sighed, leaving the room. By now, the ghost children already had a large, ghost-manifested wall built up dividing the restaurant into two parts. John, Chris, and Paul wore uniforms and had built a small castle attached to a fort labeled 'Militaree'. Mike rubbed the back of his neck. _They can't even spell the word, but they already have battle strategies._ This game of pretend was a lot more extreme than he had thought it would be.

"Ambassador Schmidt!" John called from the top of the castle. He was sitting in a throne and wearing a golden crown and a royal cape. John and Paul stood on either side of him.

"What?" Mike asked, meandering up to him.

"I'm sick of this ugly wall in front of me." He said with a regal air, waving his hand pompously. "Paul and I have devised a treaty proposing the unification of our states." He handed a scroll to Paul who ran through the little castle and appeared in front of Mike, handing it to him. "I trust you to give it to our neighboring queen without damaging or changing the documentation within it."

Mike opened the scroll, reading the first few words aloud. "It is a terrible thing, this wall we have built between us, would it not be easier to allow men to work equally on either side of the dividing territory? Let us not spit at each other with our weapons of war but instead come together and-" He shook his head, looking at how long the written letter was. "This is a well-scripted and formal treaty!" He exclaimed.

"Yes," John nodded, seeming confused by his surprise. "It only makes sense to use utmost formalities when engaging in conversations of peace between leaders."

Mike ran his hand through his short hair beneath his cap. "So you want me to take it to Laura and have her sign it or whatever?"

John laughed. "Oh, of course not! This is only to alert her of my intentions. Should she agree, we will hold a meeting at the wall to sign the actual peace treaty. All I need you to do is take her this message and bring us back her reply."

"Um…Okay." Mike took the scroll and walked through a small wooden door in the ghost-manifested wall dividing the restaurant. On the other side of the wall were glittery pink ghost-manifested things everywhere. Even the tanks and cannons were pink and fuzzy. "Laura?"

"That's Queen Laura to you, you no-good _boy_!"

Mike looked up to the top of a pink castle where Laura sat; wearing a dress that was so puffy she looked like a little parachute. Marionette and Jess stood on either side of her with pink bows around their necks. When Laura saw Mike, she became less angry.

"Oh, it's only the ambassador. Jess, will you go down there and see what he wants?"

Mike waited patiently for Jess to run down through the castle until she stood in front of him. "What do you want, Ambassador Schmidt?"

"This is from Jo- I mean, King John." He handed her the scroll.

"Wait here." Jess took the scroll and ran up through the castle until she was standing beside Laura. Mike thought it was silly, she was a ghost, and she could fly up to Laura. But he supposed that flying was not allowed in the game. He folded his arms behind his back as Laura opened the scroll and read it.

"A peace proposal?" She asked as she read. "I like the sound of it…" She slowly frowned. "What?! Rule _beside_ John as _King and Queen_?! Absolutely not! How dare he make such an outrageous claim at me! I'm a _Queen_!" She tore up the scroll angrily and Marionette held back a snicker at her rage. Laura manifested a sheet of paper and a pen and began very angrily scribbling a message. She folded it crudely and thrust it in front of Jess.

Jess took it and ran hurriedly through the castle to give it to Mike. "Make sure it gets to John!" She told him sternly. "Or else you're fired!"

"YOU CAN'T FIRE PEOPLE! I CAN! I'M THE QUEEN!" Laura waved her clenched fists.

Mike unfolded the sheet of paper. It read 'UR STOOPID'. He refolded it and hurried back through the door to John's side of the restaurant. Paul was standing at the foot of the castle with a hand outstretched, waiting to receive the Queen's letter. Mike handed it to him and watched the boy run up through the castle to John.

There was a moment of silence whilst John received his message and unfolded it. His expression snapped from calm to outrage as he read what was scripted on the paper. "This is an OUTRAGE!" He cried. He scowled and gripped the arms of his throne in fury. "This is how she wants it? So be it! We gave her the chance to rule beside us and govern it all together. She wants only one monarch? She'll get one. And that monarch will be ME!" he snapped his head around to look at Chris. "Prepare the tanks and artillery! This is war!"

Paul, who had been busily scripting down his words, folded the piece of paper he was writing on and sprinted through the castle to pass the message onto Mike while Chris ran down to the weaponry and began loading the guns and tanks. "This is the declaration of war." He told Mike as he handed him the paper. "Don't lose it!"

"I won't." Mike promised. He quickly ran through the wooden door to Laura's side of the restaurant.

"Well? What did he say?" Laura asked with a smug look on her face. She beckoned Mike to her throne with a finger. Mike hurriedly ran through the little castle, having to duck underneath the pink ceilings as he was taller than the children. Before he could hand the message to her, Laura reached over and snatched it out of his hand.

"WAR?!" She exclaimed. "SO BE IT! MARIONETTE, GO READY THE ARMORY!"

"Yes, your highness." Marionette said with a grin, jumping from the top of the castle down to the pink and glittery tanks. Mike followed her.

"You're really playing this with them?" He asked her in surprise.

She smirked. "You're acting like this isn't fun."

"It's not!" he yelled. "I never did anything like this when I was a kid!"

She threw back her head and laughed out loud. "You did not just say that." She walked over to the stage where Vincent's old photo album lay and flipped through the old pages. When she stopped, she turned the book to Mike and pointed to a photograph. In the picture, Marionette was in the middle of a common ballet stance and a little boy in a bandana was tugging on her arm, holding out a plastic toy dinosaur.

"Do you remember that?"

"Nope." Mike said, flushing in embarrassment at the sight of his childhood self.

"You were upset because you couldn't play dinosaur-war with Foxy, so you asked if you could play them with me. When I told you I was doing ballet, you said you wanted to play dinosaur-war-ballet." She closed the photo album with a smug look and moved back to the ghost-manifested tanks. "Try to have fun! Look at all the things they did with their imagination!"

"I would have fun if I wasn't the AMBASSADOR WHO JUST RUNS BACK AND FORTH DOING NOTHING!"

* * *

Mike was awakened later that day by a knocking at the front door…Well, it wasn't quite the visitor's knocking, but Spike's howling that came with it. He had slept in until eleven thirty in the morning, and would've greatly appreciated to sleep longer. He was ignoring the knocking at his door and just about to drift off to sleep again when Marionette came into his room and shoved him.

"Wake up there's someone at the door." She told him.

"Why can't you get it?"

She stared at him.

"Right, never mind." He groaned and pulled himself up out of his bed covers.

"Gross, you slept in your uniform?" She narrowed her eyes. "You didn't shower?"

"I'll shower later!" He whined, trudging out of his bedroom and through the living room to the front door. "Hello?" He asked with a yawn, opening the door.

Standing on his porch was a strawberry-blonde teenage girl in hot pink athletic shorts, black converses, and a T-shirt with three trumpets on it that read 'Quietville High School Marching Band'. She had a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. "Good morning, I'm Madison and I'm with the Quietville band. We're doing a fundraiser, are you interested?"

"I don't know...let me check my wallet. You can sit on the porch swing if you want." He said, turning back into his house. Marionette was in the kitchen, so as not to be seen by the guest. Before she could ask Mike who was at the door, he answered. "Some kid doing a fundraiser." He grabbed his wallet off the counter to see what cash he had. Much to his surprise, there was a comfortable amount of cash inside. "Where did this come from?" He muttered.

Marionette casually took a red bull out of the refrigerator and drank it, muttering. "It's not like I stole it or anything…"

Mike didn't notice. He shrugged with a little smile and returned to the guest on his porch. "What are you selling?"

"I've got a catalog. It's just sweets and stuff." Madison handed him a catalog from her clipboard. The pages within it were filled with signature candies and sweet treats.

"What's this peppermint stuff?" Mike asked, pointing to an item on a page.  
"I haven't had it yet, but this other girl in my band gets like three packs of them every year so I guess it's good."

"I'll take it, then." Mike shrugged.

"'Kay. Write your name and address here- and your phone number." She handed him the clipboard and pen.

"Why my phone number?" He frowned a little.

"So we can call you and let you know your stuff arrived if you're not home when we go to deliver it."

"Alright." Mike took the pen and followed her instructions, writing down his cell phone number. It hadn't been a pretty price, but he'd gotten a new phone after the company told him there was no way they could possibly fix water and shatter damage. As he scribbled on the clipboard, Madison tapped away on her smart phone.

Spike ran around the side of the house, wagging his stumpy tail in joy at the sight of a visitor. Mike rolled his eyes and quickly handed Madison her clipboard. "Spike, no." He said. "Who let you out the back door?" He grumbled and tried to push his dog away. "Sorry," He told Madison. "He doesn't bite; he's a coward, really."

"That's an awesome Doberman." She said. "Thanks for helping out with the fundraiser, by the way."

"Any time," Mike nodded, holding back his dog as Madison walked down the walkway and out of the fence, closing it behind her. After she was gone, he let go of Spike, who ran to the fence and barked.

"What were they selling?" Marionette asked from inside the house.

"Just candy and stuff." Mike said, walking inside and closing the door behind him.

"What did you get for me?" She asked expectantly.

"Nothing."

She frowned.

"I'm not your boyfriend, I don't have to spoil you." He laughed at her disappointed look. "But you can share the peppermint stuff I got with me."

"Fine."

* * *

Mike sat across from Foxy at a table in the restaurant, drinking a coke. Bonnie and Freddy were on stage arguing about a chord, Chica and Marionette were sitting a little farther away from Mike and Foxy eagerly talking about Chanteys and which characters were cuter and who would make a good couple. The ghost kids were at a separate table playing a clapping game.

"How'd yesterday go with the kids?" Foxy asked Mike.

"Boring, for me. I had to be the ambassador." Mike half chuckled. He stretched and sighed.

"Y'look stressed."

Mike shrugged. "Just thinking about my finances, I guess. When I first got the job I didn't think much of it. I felt fine about skating by on minimum wage, but now..." He shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it would just be nice to have more money than I do."

"Thinkin' of getting a second job?" Foxy raised an eyebrow. "It's a good idea."

"Yeah, but when am I going to sleep?" Mike asked. "If I work a second job all day long, I'll have to come work the night shift here. I'll barely have time to sleep, let alone have a social life."

"Y'can sleep here." Foxy shrugged. "We have that couch we're always hidin' in the back rooms. It's not like we need a night guard, since there's the four of us plus Vincent to keep people out of the building."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Or y'could sleep at home and have Marionette come in and do your night job for you. She could clock you in and out, and it ain't like someone's gonna see ye comin' in and outta the restaurant."

"That's actually a really great idea…"

"That's why I'm here." Foxy grinned. "What other job are y'lookin' for?"

"I don't know really." Mike chuckled nervously. "Probably another minimum wage job. I didn't go to college, and at this point I can't afford it.

Foxy jerked his head in the direction of the hidden hallway. "Y'should talk to Vincent about it. He'd probably have more advice about college than I would."

"Thanks." Mike shrugged.

The door to the hidden hallway opened and Vincent walked out with Scrappy at his side. The poor ghost was still shivering and looked at the people around him fearfully. Vincent nodded towards Foxy and Mike and helped the ghost move over to them.

"Hey Vincent, what's up?"

"Right now I'm just trying to help Scrappy be a little more social. He's still really weary of other people. You two are really laid back, so I brought him over to chat with you guys." Vincent said, sitting beside Foxy. Scrappy clung to his arm. "No, no, go sit over there by Mike." The ghost floated through the table and placed himself in the seat beside Mike.

"Nice to finally have a conversation with ye, lad." Foxy smiled at the ghost. "What's yer name?"

"Scrappy." The ghost said in a fearful voice.

"Na, I mean your real name."

"…The phone guy…?"

Vincent gave a little sigh. "It's okay, Scrappy, you tried." He looked to Mike and Foxy. "He can't remember his name. As a matter of fact, there's a lot he can't remember about himself."

"Well, what does he remember?" Foxy asked.

After the ghost stayed quiet, Vincent answered. "I'm not entirely sure, but he does like Britney Spears." He shrugged.

"WHO LIKES BRITNEY SPEARS?!" Bonnie whirled around with a crude smirk and pointing to Mike. "Is it YOU?" He cupped his paws around his mouth. "GAAAAAAAYY!"

Mike rolled his eyes. Scrappy looked away from them and wrung his hands. "I'm not gay…" He whispered.

Vincent gave a half chuckle. "See, this is why we didn't take him to talk to Bonnie first." He looked over at Scrappy. "How you feeling, hot shot?"

"Okay." The ghost shivered.

"How do you like Mike and Foxy?"

"Okay?"

"You wanna try talking to them?" Vincent encouraged.

Scrappy looked at Mike, who gave him a friendly smile. "Your fly is down."

"What?" Mike flushed.

Foxy choked on his soda and slammed his hook on the table, laughing. "Well done, lad!" He told Scrappy. "Yer a joy to talk to!"

"Did I say something…bad?" Scrappy asked, looking horrified.

"No, no, no- it was a great effort." Vincent gave him a small, sympathetic smile.

"…Effort."

Vincent sat back in his seat. "Yeah…we're working on it. I want to get him confident enough to come run around with us outside the restaurant at night."He glanced behind Scrappy to the kids, who were still playing their game. "Hey, Scrappy, you want to go play with them?"

Scrappy glanced behind him and shuddered, shaking his head.

"Alright." Vincent leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, propping them up on the table. "He's still shy about the kids." He told Foxy.

A quiet dinging noise told Mike that some had messaged him. He pulled his cell phone from his shirt pocket. The text was from a number he didn't recognize. It was a photo of Spike in the backseat of someone's car. The message with it read, 'We have your dog.'


	29. Chapter 29

**]**

"THEY HAVE MY DOG!" Mike jumped up out of his chair suddenly, startling Scrappy so much that he squealed and floated through the table, tackling Vincent in fear. Vincent rolled his eyes and shoved the ghost off of him.

"What?" Freddy asked from the stage. Everyone in the room had stopped to stare at Mike.

"It's the band kids! They stole my dog!" Mike cried.

"Why would the band kids steal your dog?" Chica asked, frowning.

"And how would they know where you live or your cell phone number?" Freddy lowered his guitar.

"I-I don't know!" He looked at the photo again. "My poor dog!"

Marionette sat up and snapped her fingers. "The fundraiser!" She pointed at him. "You gave her your address and cell phone number for the fundraiser!"

Mike gripped the sides of his head. "Aaauggh!" He screamed. "They really do have my dog!"

Freddy threw out his hands. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?! THIS IS FOR THE SNARE!"

Vincent stood up and waved his hands. "Hey, calm down!" He crossed his arms. "They have your dog? That's fine. It's a hostage situation. All we need to do is take the snare to them and they'll give back your dog."

"Wait," Foxy narrowed his eyes and twitched his ears. "How do y'know these kids don't have the police with them?"

Everyone in the room paused and turned to look at him.

"S'pose these kids already notified the police because they recognized him from the night we stole the snare drum. Or s'pose they've got cameras ready to prove that he stole it." Foxy said.

"So, what should we do?" Freddy asked slowly, tilting his head.

"Find out where they are." Foxy told Mike.

"Okay," Mike texted in a panicked way on his phone. "Why?"

"Tell them something like…" Foxy looked at the clock, which read '4:50'. "Tell them that you'll be at the main intersection in town at five thirty."

"They're at Madison's house." Mike said, typing into his phone. "She says they'll be in town by five thirty."

"Are we really going to meet them at the main intersection in town?" Freddy frowned.

"No." Foxy shook his head. He looked at Mike. "Y'took yer car here?"

Mike nodded.

"Alright." Foxy rubbed his chin. "Freddy, Bonnie, will y'load the snare into the back of the car? We'll drive to the school, drop off the snare, then Mike can message them and say that the snare is back at the school. After that all that's left for Mike to do is go to the main intersection at five thirty."

"Why?" Mike asked as Bonnie and Freddy jumped off stage and went back to the hidden hallway to retrieve the marching snare.

"Get a soda from the gas station, just stand around, whatever y'want." Foxy grinned smugly. "Y'don't have to meet with them or say anything. Y'never told them ye were going to _meet_ them anywhere."

Vincent nodded with raised eyebrows. "Good plan…Who's going?"

"Me, you, Mike, Marionette..." Foxy rubbed his chin. "And Bonnie."

"What?" Chica frowned. "Why can't me and Freddy go?"

"Yeah, make her stay here at least! She gets to run around outside all day long anyways!" Bonnie grumped as he carried the snare through the building.

"There's not enough seats in my car for all of you!" Mike said.

"And since we're bigger than the average human, one of us needs to be short or at least skinny to fit in the backseat." Foxy explained. He patted Mike's shoulder. "Let's get goin', lad."

"Right behind you." Mike said, following him with his eyes glued to his phone.

Marionette got up from her seat with a little groan, bringing the rest of her soda with her. She followed them lazily down the hallway and out the front door. A gust of warm summer air covered them.

Freddy slammed the trunk of Mike's shiny black mustang. "You're all set." He said, stepping back as Mike and the others approached the car. Marionette climbed in the backseat and set herself in the middle and Bonnie climbed in to her right.

Vincent paused before getting in on the left side. "Freddy, you can Chica can hold down the fort while we're gone right?"

Freddy frowned at him as if the question was stupid. "I don't know if we can handle that." He said with crude sarcasm.

"What I mean is, try to keep Scrappy calm until I get back?" Vincent elaborated with an eye roll. "He's still pretty frightened and I don't want him running off and getting lost."

Mike climbed into the driver's seat and Foxy sat in the passenger's seat. The engine rumbled to life with a smooth growl. "Hey Vince," Mike called. "We're going now."

Freddy nodded to Vincent. "I'll do my best." He gave a wave and headed back into the restaurant.

Vincent sat back in his seat and closed the car door. The drive to the high school wouldn't be a long one. After nearly a minute of driving towards town, Mike turned right and crossed the main street to the road behind the pawn shop. Slowly, through the pines they drove by, the Quietville High School came into sight. The gate was open again. Vincent rubbed his chin at the sight of the empty parking lot.

"The band isn't here. That means they're either at the practice field, on lunch break, or they don't even have practice this morning and some idiot forgot to close the gate to the school."

Mike pulled into the parking lot and drove towards the big band room doors.

"Wait," Vincent said. "Pull around up to the front office. If there are any band kids here, they'd be near the band room- they'd see your car and get your license plate number."

Mike nodded and drove around to the front office. He parked and shut the engine off, popping the trunk as everyone piled out of the car. Bonnie went around and pulled the snare out of the back.

"You can break into the band room again, right?" Foxy asked Vincent.

Vincent twisted his jaw thoughtfully. "I wouldn't call it _breaking_ _in_. It's more like a ritualistic way to open doors that only band members know." At Foxy's silence, Vincent sighed. "Yes I can break in again."

"Great."

"So, why did you need me to come along?" Marionette asked, following Foxy and Vincent up to the band room doors while Mike and Bonnie carried the snare.

"To use you as a sacrifice." Foxy said with a stern look.

Bonnie and Mike paused in carrying the drum. Vincent blinked. Marionette froze in her tracks Foxy threw back his head and laughed. "AAAAAAAAAGGGHH HA HA HA HA HA! YE THOUGHT I WAS SERIOUS!" He howled.

Bonnie rolled his eyes and Mike laughed with him. Marionette gave a half nervous chuckle. Vincent smirked. "Nah, this band isn't on that level." He snorted. "Now that _drum_ _corps_ I was in..."

A gruff laugh rumbled in the back of Foxy's throat. "Oh I remember _those_ stories mmmuuaaaA HA _HEH_!"

Vincent performed his signature knock on the band room double doors and they cracked open. Holding back his hand, Vincent poked his head into the band room to check if the coast was clear. He waved them inside. "They must be in the park- the drum line equipment is gone."

Foxy followed him into the band room, his lone eye scanning it for signs of people. "Watch yer step." He muttered, stepping over someone's stay bag.

The room looked similar to the time they had last visited. This time, there were empty instrument cases, a few stray bags, and a few hoodies littering the floor. The lights had been left on, and most of the doors were left hanging open by students and staff of the band moving about them.

"It smells worse than last time." Marionette commented, looking around with an uninterested expression and crossing her arms.

"Where should we leave the snare?" Bonnie asked.

"Hmm…" Vincent frowned and looked around the room. "Put it on the band director's podium. Make it obvious." He tilted his head at the instrument room. "What is…?" He ran across the leveled carpet flooring and turned right into the instrument room.

Mike curiously followed him. There was a big silver instrument standing on its bell by an open locker. "What's that, a tuba?"

Foxy face planted, shaking his head. Mike flushed in embarrassment, but Vincent only snorted.

"Why is it that people think everything that is big and brass is a tuba?" He picked up the instrument. "It's a marching euphonium." He said.

"A what?" Mike tilted his head.

"A baritone." Vincent said.

Mike stared at him and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Bonnie rolled his eyes.

"Here, try it." Vincent handed it to him. "You have to…It works like this. You can't just blow air through it- you have to buzz your lips."

Mike took it and tried to hold it. Vincent helped him rearrange his hands and fingers to hold the instrument properly. Mike looked it over. "I have to…This feels stupid."

"Try it."

Mike hesitated before pressing the mouthpiece of the instrument to his lips.

_PPpbbbbffft_ The instrument squeaked in a deep voice.

Bonnie laughed and pointed to him while Marionette held back a snicker.

Mike went red in the face. "I can't do this."

"No, you almost had it, really." Vincent said. "Try it again. This time open your teeth when you do."

Mike rolled his eyes and held the instrument up to his mouth again. This time instead of a garbled squeak, a clear note rang out from the instrument. Marionette and Bonnie raised their eyebrows. Foxy grinned from ear to ear.

"There we go, he's a brass player." Vincent said. "Good thing we didn't have to make you try and squeak on a clarinet or a saxophone or…" He shuddered and hugged himself. "The oboe."

Mike chuckled and played on the instrument again. This time, the note changed suddenly to a deeper one. He lowered the instrument with big eyes. "What happened? I didn't press any keys!"

"You change notes with your mouth- by moving your teeth and lips." Vincent explained.

"What?" Mike asked. "That's so complicated!"

"Well, you sound pretty in tune to me." Vincent rubbed his chin. "You know, you should be in the band when you finally go to college…I mean, you know, _if_ you go to college."

Mike flushed and looked away. "I can't play this thing."

"Sure ye can." Foxy said. "And if ye think ye don't care too much for it, I'd always be proud to hear a bassoon." He winked.

Mike smiled at him. "…A what?"

Bonnie and Marionette groaned and shook their heads.

Foxy looked around the room to find a clock. He stuck his head out into the rest of the band room and found a music-themed clock hanging on the far left wall. "Alright, let's get goin'." He stepped towards the back double doors. Just as he had done so, he watched them slam shut.

"What was that?" Marionette asked in a nervous voice.

Foxy briskly walked to the doors and shoved on them. They wouldn't budge. He drew back his arm and slammed it hard against the doors. The sound of his fist hitting the door made the room shudder. Mike, Vincent, Bonnie, and Marionette stared at Foxy's stiff back, unsure of whether or not it was a good idea to say something.

"It's locked from the outside." He grunted.

"They trapped us in here." Vincent muttered under his breath. "They've probably barricaded the door, too."

"Um…there's probably another way out." Mike suggested quietly.

"TRAPPED US IN HERE?!" Bonnie yelled. "Jesus- they really ARE gonna call the cops!" He looked at Mike. "You better learn not to drop the soap, kid, cause your goin' to _prison_!"

Mike shuddered.

Foxy said nothing, but moved over to the doors connecting the band room to the rest of the school with a heated posture and pressed on them. If they could get into the rest of the school, they could find another way out. He shoved them with both of his arms and threw himself against them. They were still.

"Son of a bitch." He snarled.

"T-they won't really take me to _prison_, will they?" Mike asked, rubbing his shoulder nervously. "I didn't do anything!"

"Technically, they have some evidence that leads up to you stealing the snare drum." Vincent rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Foxy backed up a few paces from the door and sprinted towards it, throwing himself against it.

"Yeah, and you still technically broke into the school." Marionette added. "If they don't throw you into prison, they might just throw you in the loony house."

"WHAT?!" Mike squealed.

"Yeah, just a human man walking around a school with the four of us?" Bonnie snickered. "We're not helping you out on this one pal-we're playing dead."

Foxy drew back his leg and swung it against the door, kicking it. The room shuddered. He drew back his leg and kicked it again. This time, the door broke from its bolts and hinges and fell against the floor. Marionette and Bonnie exchanged a wide-eyed look.

"I forgot how strong he was." She muttered. Bonnie nodded quickly.

"Let's go." Foxy jerked his shoulder forward. He glanced back at Mike. "You want a lift, lad?"

Mike, not noticing Foxy's rather aggressive attitude, eagerly climbed up on Foxy's back. Without looking back towards the others, Foxy continued on through the empty school.

"I feel like he won't be as angry if he's giving Mike a piggy back ride." Vincent whispered to Bonnie and Marionette. "I haven't seen him like this in years."

"Yeah, the thing is he's _always_ an angel towards Mike so you just never know." Marionette murmured.

"Well, Vincent," Foxy growled, straightening his back to support Mike's weight. "Ye know this place better than the rest of us. Lead us outta here."

"Um…" Vincent looked at Marionette and Bonnie and they shoved him forward. "Alright." He hesitantly lumbered in front of Foxy and led them down the hallway to a pair of double doors. When he pressed on them, they didn't budge. "Locked."

"Move." Foxy grunted. As Vincent stepped aside, he drew up his leg and slammed his foot against the doors. With the shriek of breaking metal, the door fell to the ground in front of them with a loud thunderous bang.

A gust of night summer air rushed into their faces. The outdoor courtyard of the school was empty. Vincent, taking a moment to recover from the fall of the door, took a few steps into the courtyard and looked around at the darkened school buildings, rubbing his chin. "Hm…" He turned his head left. "This way. The office building is to the far left of the complex- from the band room's point of view, that is. It should lead us straight out of the school."

"Glad we have time to think about it, unlike _last_ time." Marionette muttered, slowly narrowing her eyes at Vincent.

"Yeah…and since we're not too busy, we could probably go over to the baseball field and play a game." Bonnie nudged Marionette. "Whadda ya say? I bet I could make a few home runs if I team up against Mike."

"No thanks, I'm content at second base." Marionette muttered.

"What's that mean?" Bonnie frowned.

"Hold on. You're teaming up with me now?" Mike turned his head to frown back at Bonnie. "What's up with that?"

"Because you're a damn genius at baseball!" Bonnie told him. "Every time you step up to the plate, everyone in the outfield starts backing up!"

"Oh…I…didn't realize." Mike rubbed the back of his neck, flushing pink.

"He's good at _all_ the sports we play," Vincent said. "I think he's just lying about being unpopular in high school."

"No. That's true." Mike said in a dreary tone and Bonnie laughed.

Foxy hummed the hymn of the old snow globe as he walked. To Mike, however, something sounded different about it. "You're changing some of the notes."

"Nay, I ain't." Foxy tilted his head.

"Yeah, you are." Mike frowned down at him.

"Foxy. That thing sits at my house. I know you're changing the notes."

"Prove it."

Mike groaned and Foxy snickered.

"So…you're not mad?" Marionette asked Foxy testily as they moved in between the buildings of the school.

"What'd I be mad for?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

She opened her mouth to speak then shook her head and sighed. "I don't know I just…it felt like you were a little hot headed earlier."

"Nope." Foxy grunted, mercilessly breaking down another set of double doors, allowing the gang to enter the school's office building. It was very, very dark and quiet, aside from the ringing of the sound of a door crashing to the floor.

"Most of the doors are going to be locked," Vincent said, leading them through the building towards another set of double doors that would hopefully lead them to the parking lot and out of the school grounds. "Let's just get through this building real quick and be out of here."

"Um…guys?" Bonnie said. He had stopped.

The others turned around to Bonnie. He arched an eyebrow and jerked his head up in the top corner of the office. There was a security camera pinned on them.

"Shit." Foxy grunted and Mike tried to hide into his fur from view of the camera.

"Well…no big deal, right?" Marionette shrugged. "All we need to do is destroy the cameras, find the room where they connect to, and destroy the system." She turned to Vincent. "Where's the security equipment?"

Vincent was frowning at the camera. He slowly shook his head. "I don't know." He muttered.

Mike frowned. "We never had a security system when I was in school."

"I didn't see any other cameras in the band room or the rest of the school; they must've only installed it in the office." Vincent looked around the office building and ran his hand over his chipped, yellow snout and face. "The only thing to do is to break into every room and find out."

Foxy cracked his knuckles against his hook. "Shouldn't be a problem. Won't need to break these doors down- they have handles I can bust." He moved to the nearest office door. "Bonnie, would ye go down the hall and try to break into a few yerself?"

"Sure." Bonnie grinned and cracked his knuckles. "This'll be fun." He muttered to Marionette as they walked down the hall to a door. He slammed his fist down on the handle. "OW!" He yelped, holding his hand in his other one. "Jesus that hurt!"

Marionette jiggled the door handle. "It's still locked, dizty."

They looked across the hall and saw Foxy bring his fist down on a door handle. There was a cracking sound and he pulled the handle down and went into the room. Mike turned on his flashlight so they could see inside. After a moment, Foxy moved onto the second door and broke in again.

Marionette turned to Bonnie and put her hands on her hips. "_He_ can do it."

"I can see that, thanks." Bonnie muttered.

Foxy easily broke into four more doors in the time it took Bonnie to break into one. Vincent, meanwhile, had booted up the computer in the office behind the desk and was checking to see if the system was hooked up to it. After a moment, he groaned and went rummaging through binders.

"Passwords…" He muttered.

"This is the last door." Mike told Foxy as they moved to another door. "If it's not in here…we're out of luck."

Foxy slammed his fist on the door to break the lock. As he did, he pulled his hand back suddenly and snarled. "Son of a fu-"

Mike covered his ears. "You're such a foul-mouth!" he said.

Foxy, gave his wrist a shake and opened the door. "Pirate."

Mike shrugged. "True."

Inside the room, Mike clicked his flashlight on. There was an active computer inside with a bunch of wires and cables hooked up to it. The screen was on and bearing the name of a security company. Below it was a log-in screen.

Foxy frowned his eye. "I can't break into a program." He growled.

"Hang on…" Vincent said, lumbering up to them with his nose buried into a book. "For the username, try QHS06. And for the password, try…password."

Mike climbed off of Foxy's back and typed into the keyboard. "The password is 'password'?" He frowned.

"Yep." Vincent said, still looking through the binder.

Mike pressed enter on the keyboard. A notice came up in red bearing the words 'incorrect password.'

"Well shit." Vincent frowned and closed the binder. "There aren't any other pass codes in this binder that'd work. We'd have to hack in somehow, and right now we don't have the brains or time to hack into the school's security system…"

Foxy ripped the chords and cables from the computer screen, lifted it, and smashed it onto the ground. He tore apart the cables and destroyed the cable box beyond repair. He lumbered out of the room to the security camera in the office and tore it from its place, breaking it over his knee and throwing it on the ground. "Problem solved."

"I…guess that works." Vincent said, looking at the mess. "So long as it's broken beyond repair, I don't think the footage will ever be retrievable." He shook his head. "We've got to get out of here. What time is it?"

Mike shined his flashlight around the building until his light landed on a basic wall clock. "It's five twenty."

Foxy nodded. "He's right, we need to get goin' if we're gonna be at the main intersection by five thirty." He moved quickly over to the double doors with a glowing red 'exit' sign over them. Drawing his leg back, he kicked them down.

"Good thinking, Vincent, about parking by the office." Mike said, jumping off of Foxy's back as they ran out of the office towards his car. "Now we don't need to run all the way around the school back to the front of the band room."

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I guess it works." Vincent shrugged as they all frantically climbed into the car.

Mike started the engine and quickly pulled out of the parking lot. As drove back they way they'd come, Vincent turned to look at the school.

"Weird…there's no one there." He muttered. "I wonder why they locked us in, then."

As the mustang peeked out from around the pawn shop, Mike crossed over the southbound lane and made a left, driving into town. As they neared the gas station, he could see a lone white pickup truck in the parking lot. He pulled in and parked across the parking lot.

"You go." Foxy told him. "We'll be here."

Mike nodded and turned off the engine, stepping out of the car. As he marched across the parking lot, three teens in the same white hoodie climbed out of the pickup truck. They stood and face each other with about five yards of space between them. Mike recognized them as the three teens he'd often seen out and about on his trips in and out of the restaurant at night.

"The snare's back in the band room." Mike said. "Where's my dog?"

"He's fine." The girl said.

One of the boys beside her frowned. "How'd you get out of the band room? Shane said he barricaded the doors."

"We found another way out." Mike shook his head. "I mean it…it doesn't matter, I gave you back your snare, now give me back my dog!"

The girl looked behind Mike at his car. "Stole the band director's ride out of the parking lot? Bad move."

Mike threw a glance back to his car in confusion. He was about to tell her that it was, in fact, his own car, but he figured he shouldn't let them know that. "I'll return it." He lied.

"Not if the police catch you first."

"Why do you keep saying that? If you were really going to call the police, you already would've…" Realization struck him. "You're stalling." He looked at the hoodie pocket of one of the boys and saw the top of a smart phone sticking out. "You're videoing this!"

"Yep." The boy said. "We don't even have your dog- we dropped him off at your house before we came here! We've got you on video admitting you stole our snare drum and we're going to turn it into the police later on this morning."

"You can't! Delete it!" Mike's voice rose.

"What're you gonna do about it?" He snorted.

Mike heard a car door slam behind him and watched the kids' expressions change from smirks to looks of confusion.

"_He_ might not do much about it." Foxy's voice said from beside Mike. "But _I_ will."

"Hey, we've seen you before…" One of the boys pointed to him. "You're that guy in the costume…"

"I don't think it's a costume." The other one muttered to him.

Foxy lumbered up to them and towered over the teens. He leaned down to them, his lips drawn back into an ugly snarl to reveal his shining metal fangs. "I think y'should do what he says and delete it."

"Or what?" One of the boys asked in an only half-defiant voice. The other two teens turned and looked at him with shocked looks.

A garbled robotic growl rumbled in Foxy's throat. He lifted the boy by the back of his hoodie with his hook as if the teen weighed no more than a feather, and dangled him in front of Foxy's face. His glowing blue eye flashed in anger. "I'm gonna delete _you_." He snarled through gritted teeth.

The boy shivered and stared at him with big round eyes.

Foxy reached into his pocket and shattered his phone effortlessly in his hand. He dropped him back onto the ground.

"Yer not gonna bother Mike anymore."

They shook their heads eagerly.

"Yer not gonna mention this to anyone, either."

"Right." They said.

"Yer gonna go home, or go back to practice, like nothin' happened."

"Yes sir." They quickly raced back into the safety of their pickup truck, started the engine, locked to doors, and drove off.

Foxy let his shoulders drop. He turned and walked back to Mike with a warm look on his face. "And _that_, lad, is how ye negotiate." He rubbed Mike's shoulder and sat back in the passenger seat of his car.

"Thanks…" Mike walked around to the driver's seat and got in, starting the engine and pulling out of the gas station. "Thank God that's all over." He sighed, driving back down the road toward the restaurant. "I'm actually perfectly fine with never seeing any of those kids again."

"Well you've still gotta wait until Madison brings your peppermint stuff from that fundraiser." Marionette half chuckled. "Won't that be fun?"

Mike shook his head as he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. As he turned off the engine and everyone piled out of the car, Vincent rubbed his chin curiously.

"I wonder how Scrappy's been…" He hurried into the restaurant. Bonnie followed him with Marionette, snickering about something to her.

Mike paused before walking into the restaurant. He turned around and looked across the parking lot and the empty road, frowning.

Foxy noticed him and paused. "What is it, lad?" He asked.

"I thought I heard something." Mike said as the trees in the woods beside and behind the restaurant shivered and whispered in the night breeze. "But there's nothing." Bugs and small animals chirped and croaked their praises to the summer night sky. Above, stars glittered around the crescent moon like tiny diamonds. Only two dark clouds were swirling at the edges of the sky.

"Nice out tonight." Foxy commented, the moon reflecting in his one stormy eye. "C'mon." He turned and nodded in the direction of the front door. "Ye've got a little less than half an hour. Let's play cards."

"Alright." Mike shrugged and followed him inside. "What do you want to play?" He trailed off as he and Foxy entered the main room. Chica was teaching Marionette and Bonnie to play a clapping game on stage with the ghost kids, and Freddy was talking in a confused tone to Vincent while scrappy sobbed against him.

"…And he just kept crying and crying and wouldn't tell me what was wrong!" Mike heard Freddy say as he sat down at a table across from Foxy.

"C-c-can I h-hold y-your h-h-hand?" The ghost sobbed to Freddy.

"_No_, you most certainly _cannot_!"

Foxy looked up and frowned slowly. "I smell smoke." He said.

Mike nodded and frowned. "Yeah, me too."

Vincent heard them and turned his head to look at them. "Freddy and Chica told me they started smelling smoke a little bit after we left." He said. "I'm about to check it out, but I think it's just the dust in the air heater." He lumbered back down the hidden hallway.

Foxy nodded, still looking uneasy. "Whatever it is, get rid of it." His voice was stern.

"I'm sure it's not a fire." Mike told him.

"Doesn't matter. Smoke alone can kill us animatronics." He said. "It does something to our systems."

"Yikes…"

The lights suddenly flickered throughout the restaurant. Mike looked up and frowned. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, there was the sound of something shattering, an a large ominous orange glow could be seen down the hallway with the front doors.

Foxy jumped in his seat and the game on stage was quickly halted. Mike got up and saw huge, angry flames covering the hallway and slowly making their way towards the main room, thick black smoke gushing ahead and swamping him.

Vincent burst out of the hidden hallway. "GUYS! QUICK! THERE'S A FIRE FROM THE BACK DOOR! GET TO THE…" He trailed off, seeing the fire around the front doors. "What…?" He looked up at the ceiling. It was cracking and puffs of smoke as well as tiny scarlet flames were peeking out. The whole building was radiating red and orange as fire slowly moved along the walls.

Freddy and Chica started coughing heavily.

Vincent gripped the sides of his head. "G-guys, I'll try and find another way out…" He looked around the room wildly.

"Wait!" Mike said. "There's a fire extinguisher in the security office!" Without waiting for someone to answer him, he bolted down the hallway towards the office. At the end of the hallway, he could see furious flames and just missed them as he skidded into the office. Inside the office it was burning hot. He coughed, but frantically threw papers and things out of the way.

"Where is it…?" He muttered, looking all around the room. "Come on…come on…I know I've seen it in here before!"

There was a sudden thud behind him. He looked up. The mechanical doors had shut on him. He felt a heavy weight fall into the pit of his stomach. "No, no…" He pressed the button to open the doors, but they didn't budge. "Oh come on! You've gotta be kidding m…" He broke off into a fit of coughing. "Come on…!" He banged on the door to his left.

"HELP!" He screamed, realizing he couldn't get out. "SOMEONE HELP ME! I'M STUCK!" He coughed harder as smoke filled his lungs and dropped to his knees. His chest ached. Fearfully, he hammered on the door.

"PLEASE, HELP ME!" He cried. His desperate pleas became quieter and quieter as it became more of an effort to fill his lungs with air. He slowly stopped banging on the door; he was too weak to continue. He finally slumped his back up against the door. His heart was racing in his chest. "Please…someone…help…me…" His vision blurred.

Before he could close his eyes, something jolted energy into him. The door across from him was wide open. But that wasn't what caught his attention. Standing in the doorway was a little boy, around six or seven, smiling at Mike. Mike shook his head. The child wasn't a ghost; he was a living breathing little boy smiling at Mike.

"Who…where did you come from?" Mike frowned.

The boy giggled, turned and ran down the hallway toward the main room.

As if the smoke and heat weren't hurting him at all, Mike launched himself off of the floor after the boy. "Hey! Kid! Where are you going?!" he called out, racing down the hallway. "Don't go down there! There's a fire in-" He stopped short, realizing very suddenly that he wasn't in the burning restaurant . He was standing in a big, cheery room that he hadn't stood in for a very long time.

Children were running around, playing games and laughing. Three toy and lively animatronics were standing on stage, playing and singing a happy song. Employees dressed in purple were dashing to and fro tending to the needs to children and requests of parents. Mike's eyes widened. _How am I here? _No one seemed to notice that a night guard had appeared in the room out of thin air.

His eyes darted around the room to the little boy he'd seen in the office. The child slyly ran around a tall, lanky employee with a tangled, loose ponytail and a black and white animatronic on his shoulders, and ran down the main hallway. Mike briskly went after him. He watched the boy throw a glance down a hall where multiple parties were being held. Before the child turned and joined them, he stopped and turned his head to the end of the hall, looking at a door labeled 'Parts and Service'. There was a large crack in the wooden door.

Tiny as the opening was, however, Mike saw a flash of crimson. The child saw it too, and curiously walked closer towards the door. With little hesitation, the boy reached up, turned the knob, and went inside the door.

This room was huge. Wooden and dark rafters stretched high above their heads and the ceiling had an incomplete feeling to it. Against the back wall, the far corner was obscured by violet curtains hanging from rafters in the ceiling. A voice was humming from behind them.

"Hello?" The little boy asked aloud. "Who's there?"

Mike blinked, feeling strange. There was something familiar about this. He could hear those exact words in his head as if he'd heard them before.

The voice behind the violet curtains stopped humming suddenly. There was a pause in which no one spoke. The violet curtains shifted cautiously and out stepped Foxy, looking at the child before him with his eye rounded in surprise.

Frowning, the little boy took a step closer. "Who are you?"

"U-um…" Foxy's gaze darted around the room, as if willing someone to step out and take the boy back to where he had come from. "I…uh…" Behind his stormy eye, he was rapidly constructing a story. He smiled broadly. "I'm Foxy, the pirate." He told the boy.

The boy's face lit up instantly. "Really? You're a _pirate_?"

Foxy gave a nod. "Aye." He leaned down and patted the child on the head. "And who might _you_ be, lil' lad?"

"I'm Mike!"

"Well, Mikey, ye be awful brave, treadin' into Pirate Cove like ye did!" Foxy stood up straight with a grin. "Most people don't have the guts to venture into the home of a pirate."

"Can I be a pirate too?" The boy begged.

"Uhh…" Foxy stopped and looked at him. Seeing the boy's joyous expression, he put a smile back on his face. "Aye, I don't see why not." His gaze trailed over to a shelf packed with old junk, screw drivers, tools, and mechanical scraps for animatronic maintenance. He rummaged around and pulled out a dusty red bandana. Walking back over to the boy, he knelt down and tied it around his head.

"Wow…Do I look like a pirate?" He boy asked, feeling the top of his head.

"Aye, like the meanest pirate ever to sail the seven seas!" Foxy grinned. The boy beamed and hugged Foxy, taking him by surprise.

"Thanks, Foxy! You're the best!"

Watching them, Mike felt a sense of sadness rising in him. _I'm that little kid…_He realized, watching his past self and his best friend talk and laugh for the first time. _This is the first time I met Foxy._

As he looked around the room, he laughed, feeling half stupid as he realized that the majority of his childhood was spent in a repair room, and how many times he came here as a kid, just to see his friend. He turned and looked out at the rest of the restaurant, seeing Vincent and Marionette talking to each other about something and watching his old friends laughing and smiling together. _It was so long ago…But how could I ever have forgotten…?_

Mike turned back to the parts and service room, where his childhood self had caught sight of the clock. He stopped what he was doing and smiled at his new friend.

"I gotta go home now." He said. "But I'll come back tomorrow!"

Foxy smiled at him and waved him goodbye. "Goodbye, Mikey!"

The child waved as he headed out of the room. "Bye, Foxy!" Upon walking out of Parts and Service, he stopped and looked dead at Mike. Mike held back a laugh, watching his past self cock his head and frown.

"Who are you?"

Mike knelt down in front of him, placing his hand on the child's shoulder. "Listen, kid," He started. "You don't know me yet, and that's okay. I bet I look pretty stupid to you. But I need you to do us both a favor, okay?"

"Okay."

"Never grow up, okay, kid? Just stay a kid for as long as you want. Because pretty soon, you'll get older and…" He took a long look at the place around him. "Your childhood won't be here anymore." He looked back at the child. "Got it?"

"Got it!" He smiled and waved. "Bye!"

"Bye!" Mike called, waving after him. He waited until the boy had disappeared from his sight. Before he could think to do anything else, he heard a familiar melody wafting from the Parts and Service room. "The music box?" He wondered aloud. "But how…?" Just as he turned the knob and opened the door, a bright white light crashed over him.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Mike opened his eyes and looked around. It looked like he was standing on an elegant, circular, Greek patio. In front of him was a gorgeous fountain; it looked like a birdbath overflowing out into a little pool just in front of him. Around the patio, there were columns that stretched no higher than the top of his head. Behind him, towards the back of the patio, were five steps leading up to a pair of the most beautiful and elegant double doors he had ever laid eyes on. Everything was made out of a beautiful, glistening white stone Above his head, stretching for what looked like eternity was a sky filled to the brim with galaxies and billions of glittering stars. He watched several race across the sky and burn out.

Around the patio, there were big, pure white clouds and a light blue sky that darkened as it stretched upward.

"Really is somethin', isn't it, lad?"

Mike whirled around and saw a tall man standing behind him. He wore a big brown over coat and boots. He had wild long red hair that stuck out in all directions, and eyes like the stormy sea, but a kind smile.

"Foxy?" Mike tilted his head. "What…What are you doing here? Why do you look like that?"

Foxy swallowed. "I'm so sorry." He said, his smile wavering and dropping. "I tried, but…"

"What are you talking about?" Mike frowned. He threw a glance at the fountain and walked over to it. In the overflowing bird bath, he saw the Earth. As he got closer, the image distorted in the water and was replaced with another one. In this image he saw his own limp body lying side by side with Foxy's in a hallway that was glowing red orange.

"This another dream." Mike said with a bit of a snort as he turned to look at Foxy.

Foxy only looked at him miserably.

Mike looked up and around him again. He felt a weight in his stomach as he cast another glance back at the image of the fire. He felt a lump in his throat. "This is real."

"I'm so sorry."

Mike stared down into the fountain. "I'm dead." He said. "I'm really dead this time." He put his face in his hands as he felt his eyes sting.

Foxy walked up to him and rested his hand on his shoulder. "Come on, lad." He nodded in the direction of the double doors. "It's time to go. The others have already gone."

Mike looked up at him with tears streaming down his face. "Others…?"He shivered and took a longing look at Earth before Foxy slipped his arm across his shoulders and led him towards the double doors. He sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

Before he could set foot on the white stone steps, something cool and wet wrapped around his middle. He jumped. "What?!" An arm of water had stretched out of the fountain and grabbed Mike around his waist. "What's this?!" It pulled him back towards the fountain. "Foxy, help me!"

Foxy grabbed hold of Mike's wrist and pulled hard on him, trying to drag him away from the grip of the water. He fell back as the water tugged him away. Mike stretched out his hands and tried to grab hold of something.

Foxy frowned then gave a little chuckle. "Well, look at that." He stood up and turned back towards the steps, giving Mike a little wave. "I'll see you later, lad."

"No! Foxy- help!" Mike lost his grip as the water pulled him into the pool. All of a sudden, he felt himself falling. The patio, the stars, the doors, and the fountain all began to race out of sight as he fell…back to Earth.

Sirens were screaming, voices were yelling, something was roaring. Mike groaned and tried to open his eyes. He could see something massive and scarlet, writhing in the dark. He could hear voices around him. Someone was sobbing.

"…God, no, they can't be all _dead_!"

"Ma'am, please, h-how are you…alive?"

"How did you get out of the building?"

"Is there anyone else alive inside?"

"They're dead! They're dead! They're all dead!"

Farther away, he could hear angrier, garbled voices.

"HOW _DARE_ YOU DO THIS TO THEM?! YOU CALL THIS JUSTICE, YOU LITTLE BRAT I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL MYSELF!"

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE WALKING UP AND BURNING THEM ALL TO ASHES?!"

"THIS WAS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

"IF YOU THINK THIS WAS _JUSTICE_, YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"

"I'M GONNA SET YOU ON FIRE FOR ALL OF ETERNITY!"

"WHO TOLD YOU TO GO OUT AND KILL A BUNCH OF INNOCENT PEOPLE?!"

Mike forced his eyes open just long enough to see six monstrous shapes outline against the fire, screaming, shrieking and converging on one, tiny shape. He looked closer and recognized the shape as the ghost from the warehouse. Instead of looking powerful, however, he looked horrified as he took on the unholy rage of Vincent and the ghost children.

Mike's head pounded. "Oohhh God…" He closed his eyes again and winced.

"Hey…hey…he's waking up."

"He can't wake up- he's DEAD!"

"No, look!"

"That's impossible! I checked his wrist and everything- he's dead!"

"Well he doesn't look very dead anymore…!"

When Mike opened his eyes again, he felt very lost. He was in a hospital room, lying on a bed, hooked up to a machine. Everything in the room was white and sterile. He turned his head to look out a large glass window out into the morning. The large city was bustling beyond him. Lying on a bench, leaning against the large window, was Marionette. There were scratches and dark marks all over her, and she was asleep, but seeing her there was a bit of reassurance.

"You're awake."

Mike jumped and turned around. There was a young man standing in front of the door, looking at Mike with a happy, sympathetic smile. He wasn't a nurse or a doctor, and Mike had never seen him before in his life.

"I know you're probably not in the mood to talk," The man continued, without waiting for Mike to give him an answer. "And I won't stay long, I promise, but I just want to thank you."

"Thank me?" Mike frowned.

"Yes! I can't thank you enough for all the joy and memories you gave them when I couldn't." the man smiled. "You have no idea, they've been telling me nonstop about you. They can't wait for you to come home- they even have a room for you." He laughed. "They'll try to visit- I've already asked the big man upstairs if I can come by and thank you. I just wanted to let you know, you might not see them for a real long time, but they're cheering you on." He smiled as his eyes drifted over to Marionette. "You've both been through quite a lot."

"I have no idea who you are."

The man laughed a ringing and happy laugh. "I know, I know, and I'm so sorry for the confusion." He looked at Mike with sympathy. "I modified the snow globe for you, if you don't want it anymore, just throw it out."

"Wait…you what?"

The man looked at his watch. "Oh, good grief, I've got to go." He waved. "Thank you again!" He turned the handle to the door and opened it as Mike rubbed his eyes. In the next moment, the man was gone and a nurse was standing in the doorway.

"Everything okay in here?" She asked Mike.

"Um…yeah."

The nurse frowned at Marionette. "It's not awake yet?"

"Nah, she's still asleep." Mike said, heaving a sigh.

"Then…who were you talking to?"

"That man that just walked out."

The nurse frowned harder. "There was no man."

"There wasn't?"

"No…" She gave him a little nervous look. "Look I won't mention it. You've had a near death experience, I'll just let you be." She left.

"You got Clove to watch Spike?" Mike asked aloud as he drove into his driveway, throwing a glance to the porch to see Clove sitting on the swing, stroking Spike's head.

"Yeah. Rex is there, too." Marionette told him as he parked the car in the garage and they climbed out.

It was a warm summer day, around noon. Birds were chirping and flying happily overhead. The neighbor's kids were out playing in their yards. Mike and Marionette walked around to the fence in the front yard and opened it, Spike greeting them eagerly.

Clove stood from the swing as they approached her, but Rex stayed leaning against the porch beams, looking bored. "Hey, glad you're back." She said.

"Yeah, me too." Mike said. "Thanks for watching Spike for me."

"Oh, it was no problem…" She rubbed the back of her neck. "How do you feel?"

"I'm pretty good." He gave a half-smile. "Kind of sad, but eh."

"Well, if you ever need anything, we're always here for you."

"No, we're not." Rex grunted.

Clove elbowed him.

"I have a life, Clove!"

"I hate you." She rolled her eyes as they stepped off of the porch. Turning, she gave Mike and Marionette a wave. "See you later."

"Yeah, see you." He waved at her and watched them leave before entering his home. As he walked inside and fell into his armchair, he heaved a sigh. It was good to be back. Marionette fell onto the sofa and Spike licked her face.

For a moment, they sat there in silence. It could've been just some regular day in the year, Marionette staying inside because she couldn't be seen by anyone else, Mike relaxing with the knowledge that he had a job hanging over his head, and the knowledge that Foxy and the others were at the restaurant doing what they did every day sitting peacefully in the back of their minds. Today, that knowledge was gone. There was no work to go to, there were no friends to go see.

It was almost like the past year had never happened, like Mike had never applied for the job and all he knew of the animatronics was what his childhood memories had gifted him with. He looked over at Marionette. Now that she was here, he knew that the past year had to have happened. She was a living reminder of it all.

"Whatcha thinking about?" She asked him.

"It's weird…It feels like the past year didn't happen…But I know it did." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's like it all happened a long time ago. Now there isn't even a restaurant to go to."

She gave a little smile. "I know how that feels." She told him.

He arched an eyebrow. "So you got out?"

"Yeah…Vincent was able to get me out." She said.

"And the whole world knows about you now, huh?"

"Yeah," She rolled her eyes with a smirk. "The paramedics freaked out when they saw me talking and crying and then it was all over the papers. Everyone's been treating me like a regular person." She rubbed her chin and blinked. "Guess that means I should probably get a job…"

"Good thing they're always hiring at the strip club."

Marionette snorted and Mike laughed out loud.

There was a knock at the door. Marionette stopped laughing and rose to answer it. Three teens were standing on the porch with solemn faces.

"We're sorry to hear about the fire…"The girl said. She handed Marionette a box. "Here's the peppermint stuff."

"Oh…thanks." Marionette smiled and waved as they gave her a sympathetic look and moved on. She returned and handed Mike the box.

"Neat…" He opened it and broke off a piece of the candy inside. "So where are Vincent and the kids?"

"Vincent and the kids went back to the warehouse to give that ghost what he deserves. They're really, really pissed off, and so far they're doing pretty good." She leaned back. "He said he'll come by and visit later, but first they're taking the warehouse over…" She smiled. "They're going to free Jeremy and use the warehouse as a base to help other ghosts trapped on Earth."

"That's great." Mike nodded.

"You know, boss came by to talk to me while you were asleep at the hospital." She sighed. "As a matter of fact, a lot of people did. Don't be surprised when all the newspaper people start knocking on your door. Anyway, boss said he felt bad about putting you out of a job, and since the place burned down, and he was a retiring, he gave you a check."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "For how much?"

"Let me just say, it's a pretty penny." She smiled. "So…" She put her arms behind her head and looked up at the ceiling. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know." Mike admitted. "I never had a plan…for anything."

"We could move somewhere else." She said. "The city…the beach…You could buy a boat."

"I don't know…" He closed the box of sweets. "I…think I want to stay here."

"Good, me too." She admitted.

"I can get another job…Maybe I'll go to college with the check boss gave me and actually get a nice career…" he tapped his chin. "Maybe I'll pick up the euphonium…or the bassoon…I could get a few more dogs…"

"I can work somewhere in town." Marionette said. "And you could meet a nice girl, settle down…"

He gave a little chuckle. "You know…I think I'd just prefer a roommate." He smiled at her.

"Yeah?" She grinned.  
"Yeah." He nodded. He yawned and stretched in chair. "I think I'm gonna go take a nap. Wake me up if Vincent or whoever drops by."

"Will do."

Mike rose from his arm chair and lumbered behind the couch down the little hall to his room. As he closed his door behind him, he caught sight of the snow globe resting on his nightstand. Curiously, he sat down on the edge of his bed and picked it up. It looked the same as always, with the tiny figure of Foxy standing on the bowsprit pointing his saber forward…As he looked closer, he saw the tiny figure of a man standing in the crow's nest with a red bandana tied over his head.

He smiled as he looked at it. Carefully, he turned it upside down, cranking the little screw on the bottom and winding it up. As the music sang through the snow globe, he lied down on his back and closed his eyes, letting the melody lull him to sleep.

When his senses had grown foggy and he'd slipped into sleep, he looked around his dream world. It was dark and quiet. In front of him, he saw three people on a stage, slumped up against each other and fast asleep. He turned and walked down the dimly lit hallway to an abandon-looking room with rafters high in the ceiling. Slumped up against the back wall, snoring quietly, was a big man with wild red hair. Mike yawned and sat beside him, leaning his back against the man for support, tilting his head down, and closing his eyes.

The End

** IT'S FINALLY OVEERRRRRRR! I know some of you might actually want to kill me for this ending, but I'm actually pretty content with it. Now, I will be rewriting this whole story, because there's a lot of things in here I want to fix and or take out (*cough* Melanie *cough). In the meantime, I'll also be writing a prequel to this called From Yesterday. This one, however, I won't post any chapters of until the majority of it is completed. For that reason, I'm sorry, but I won't have anything posted until around mid-December or the end of November. **

** It's taken me a little over a year to complete this project, and it's super ironic that I actually planned to have it finished by freaking July of last year. **

** All in all, I'd like to say thanks to WPD for supporting me and helping me manage everything. And more importantly, thank you to all of those out there who actually read my garbage ha ha ha ha! **

** Now, I'd love to hear feedback from any and all of you! Who was your favorite character? What was your favorite part? Was there someone you hated? Was there a part you thought was stupid? Let me know! I'd love to hear it!**

** Alright, special thanks to all those who stuck with this freakin' thing from beginning to end. You da real MVP. **

** I think I've covered everything in this freakin' note. See you in DECEMBER! **


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